


THE ChuRcH of ^he 



United Brethren 



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History of the Church 



United Brethren in Christ 



REV. DANIEL BERGER, D.D. 




DAYTON, OHIO 

Unttcb Bretljren publtsljtng ^ouse 

W. J. Shuey, Publisher 

1897 



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Copyright, 1897 
By W. J. Shuey, Ptjbljsher 



All rights reserved 



PREFACE 



During a number of years past, there has been frequent expres- 
sion of desire that a new history of the United Brethren Church 
should be written. The earlier work of Mr. Spayth traced the 
history with moderate fullness down to about the year 1825, and 
more cursorily to 1841. The sketch prepared by Ex-Bishop Hanby, 
intended as a kind of supplement to Mr. Spayth's writing, com- 
mencing at 1825, gave a rapid view down to 1850. The fuller 
history of Mr. Lawrence covered the ground again from the begin- 
ning, closing with the year 1861, the date of the publication of the 
second volume. The lapse of more than a third of a century, 
through a period which has witnessed great development in the 
progressive life of the Church, has greatly emphasized the need of 
a new work which should trace the history down to the present 
time. 

The desire for a new history first found official expression in a 
resolution adopted by the General Conference of 1889, authorizing 
the publisher and trustees of the Publishing House to secure its 
preparation. No one being found who was willing to take up what 
seemed a rather formidable responsibility, the quadrennium passed 
without a beginning being made, and the General Conference of 
1893 renewed the action of 1889. Under this authority, in May, 
1894, the present writer was appointed to undertake the work. The 
task was accepted with a full sense of the responsibility involved, 
but with the hope that in due time it might be accomplished. He 
began early to make preparation for the work, collecting materials 
through extensive correspondence and from all other available 
sources. Other duties claiming a portion of his time, such as the 
care of a large congregation for nearly a year, and afterward of the 
Sunday-school literature of the Church, the writing itself proceeded 
with deliberation, a fact which the author trusts has resulted in 
advantage to the work. 

In the preparation of the history the author has availed himself 
of all accessible sources of information, making of some a quite 
free use. Some of the books drawn upon are Spayth' s "History 
of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ," Lawrence's 



ii PREFACE 

"History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ," Drury's 
"Life of Rev. Phihp William Otterbein," Harbaugh's "Life of 
Rev. Michael Schlatter," Harbaugh's "Fathers of the German Re- 
formed Church," Bangs's and Stevens's Histories of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, YeakePs "History of the Evangelical Associa- 
tion," Funk's "Mennonite Church and Her Accusers," Henry 
Boehm's "Reminiscences," Newcomer's "Journal," Asbury's "Jour- 
nal," Drury's "Life of Bishop J. J. Glossbrenner, D.D.," Davis's 
"Life of Bishop David Edwards, D.D.," Thompson's "Our BishoxDs," 
some of the volumes of "The American Church History Series," 
"Disciplines of the United Brethren in Christ, 1814-1841," E. L. 
Shuey's "Handbook of the United Brethren in Christ," Flickinger 
and McKee's History of Missions of the United Brethren Church, 
"History of the Woman's Missionary Association of the United 
Brethren in Christ," the " United Brethren Year-Book, " the journal 
of the original conference, the General Conference journal, old 
annual-conference journals, and the files of some of the periodical 
publications. 

In addition to these sources of information the author finds him- 
self under great indebtedness to ministers and others throughout the 
entire Church. From every annual conference, from every institu- 
tion of learning, and from the officers of the missionary and other 
societies of the Church, materials have been generously supplied, 
without which the history could not have appeared in so complete 
a form. But most of all is the author indebted to Bishop J. W. 
Hott, Prof. A. W. Drury, and W. A. Shuey, the committee ap- 
pointed to examine the manuscript before publication. In addition 
to this examination Professor Drury also read the book again in proof, 
making various valuable suggestions. In this work the largest 
obligation is due to Mr. Shuey for his critical revision of the entire 
history, both in the manuscript and proof, and for his careful 
preparation of a large portion of the valuable materials in Part IV. 
and the pages following. The writer is also especially indebted to the 
publisher for placing at his disposal every facility for the prosecu- 
tion of the work. 

A constant aim of the author has been to secure as far as possible 
historical accuracy, and no pains have been spared to reach this 
end. How difficult this feature of the work is, few, perhaps, can 
comprehend, except those who have undertaken to wTite history. 
It is probable that in the earlier portions of the denominational 
history but few facts will in future be discovered that will in any 
important degree modify the statements now made. In the later 
portions a principal task is to select judiciously out of the abun- 
dance of the materials. So rapid, too, are the changes which are 



PREFACE iii 

constantly going forward, that much of what is fact to-day will 
be modified to-morrow. Among these are the changes in the bound- 
ary lines of conferences, and in the ministers constituting the con- 
ferences. The great Reaper is constantly busy, and transfers from 
one conference to another are so frequent that some names correctly 
placed at the date when portions were written will already appear 
out of their true relation. The author must here also express his 
regret that many of the worthy dead, as also of the living, could 
not receive a fuller mention, the reasonable limits of a single volume 
forbidding further extension. The portions relating to the revision 
movement, and the long legal conflicts which ensued, follow closely 
the official records, and may be relied upon as strictly historical. 

In the execution of this responsible task the author has found 
an unusual pleasure in walking with the fathers of the Church 
over their old fields of toil for the Master, and in gaining a larger 
acquaintance with the noble army of their successors in the Lord's 
vineyard. Many of these fathers, through a life spent from his 
childhood in the Church, he has met and known. Of the twenty- 
six bishops whom the Church has had, he has personally known 
twenty, nineteen of this number as guests either in his own or in. 
his father's house. Of the long list of others who have held posi- 
tions in the general offices of the Church, he has known every one. 
In the prosecution of his work, therefore, he has been associated 
with those whom he has known and loved as fathers and brethren, 
and for whom, living and dead, he cherishes the warmest Chris- 
tian regard. 

The work as now completed is commended to the good will of 
the reader, in the hope that it may promote better acquaintance 
with the past labors and triumphs of the Church, and aid in 
quickening zeal for its future enlargement, and so lead to the praise 
of Him whom we love and serve. 

The Author. 

Dayton, Ohio, April 15, 1897. 



CONTENTS 



PAOE 

Preface, --.-. i 

List of Illustrations, ..-xv 



PART I 

General History 

introductory period— 1752-1774 

Preliminary, .--.17 

CHAPTER I 

Philip William Otterbein 

I. Parentage, Birth, and Early Years of Mr. Otterbein, - - - - 20 

II. The Otterbein Family, 22 

III. The School at Herborn, 26 

IV. Work in Herborn and Ockersdorf, 28 

V. The Call to America, 31 

CHAPTER II 

Mr. Otterbein in America 

I. Mr. Otterbein's Earlier Years in America— Pastor at Lancaster, - 43 
II. In Tulpehocken, Frederick City, and York, 51 

CHAPTER III 
Otterbein and Boehm 

I. Martin Boehm, ----__63 

II. Mr. Boehm in Virginia, ---72 

III. Meeting of Otterbein and Boehm, .-----. .yg 

SECOND PERIOD — 1774-1800 

CHAPTER IV 

Mr. Otterbein Called to Baltimore 

I. A New Era in Mr. Otterbein's Life, - - - 82 

II. The Reformed Church in Baltimore, --83 

III. A New Congregation Organized, ---------84 

IV. Mr. Otterbein Accepts the Pastorate, -86 

V 



vi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER V 
The Otterbein Church in BAiiTiMORE 
I. The Otterbein Church Formally Organized, --.-_. gg 
11. Mr. Otterbein's Rules Accepted by the Churches, ----- 103 

CHAPTER VI 
The Movement Toward a Separate €hurch Organization 

I. The Necessity of a New Movement, --105 

II. Associates in the Work, - 113 

1. Martin Boehm, -- 113 

2. George Adam Guething, 116 

3. Other Helpers, 122 

CHAPTER VII 
The First and Second Conferences 

I. The First Formal Conference— 1789, 132 

II. The First Confession of Faith, 137 

III. The Disciplinary Rules, 142 

IV. The Second Formal Conference— 1791, 144 

CHAPTER VIII 
Newcomer and Associates 

I. Christian Newcomer, -- 146 

II. Abraham Draksel, ----- - 154 

III. John Jacob Pfrimmer, ----156 

IV. John Neidig, 157 

THIRD PERIOD — 1800-1815 

CHAPTER IX 

The Conference of 1«00 

I. Its Importance, -160 

II. Minutes of the Conference, 162 

III. The Present Name of the Church Adopted, 163 

IV. Election of Bishops, 166 

CHAPTER X 
The Conferences of 1801-1814 
I. The Conference of 1801, 169 

II. The Conference of 1802, 170 

III. The Conferences of 1803 and 1804, 174 

IV. The Conference of 1805, 175 

V. The Conferences of 1806-1810, 178 

VI. Organization of Miami Annual Conference, - 180 

VII. The Eastern Conference — Sessions of 1811-1814, 180 

VIII. The Miami Conference— Sessions of 1810-1814, 184 

CHAPTER XI 

Friendly Correspondence 

I. With the Methodist Episcopal Church, ----..-187 
11. With the Evangelical Association, -----..-192 



CONTENTS vii 

CHAPTER XII 
The Departure of the Leaders 

I. Bishop Martin Boehm, 197 

II. George Adam Guething, - 201 

III. Bishop Philip William Otterbein, 203 

FOURTH PERIOD — 1815-1837 

CHAPTER XIII 
The First General. Conference— 1815 

I. Preparation for the Conference, 217 

II. The Conference, 222 

III. The Confession of Faith and Rules of Discipline of 1815, - - - 226 

IV. Results of the Conference, .-.. 229 

V. The German the Early Language of the Church, 230 

VI. Personal Notes, - - - 232 

1. Christian Newcomer, 232 

2. Andrew Zeller, 234 

3. Henry Kumler, Sen., 236 

4. Other Laborers — Daniel Troyer — Christian Berger — Jacob 

Baul us — George Benedum — Christian Crum— Abraham 

Mayer— Henry G. Spayth, 237 

CHAPTER XIV 

The General, Conferences of 1817-1833 

I. The Second General Conference— 1817, 244 

II. The Third General Conference— 1821, 246 

Rule on Slavery Adopted, 247 

Legislation on Temperance, -.-_ 248 

III. The Fourth General Conference— 1825, 251 

IV. The Fifth General Conference— 1829, - - 253 

V. The Sixth General Conference — 1833, - - 254 

A Publishing House Founded, -- -----255 

VI. Personal Notes, 256 

1. Joseph HofTman, -.- -. 256 

2. Samuel Hiestand, ----------- 257 

3. William Brown, 258 

FIFTH PERIOD — 1837-1885 

CHAPTER XV 

The General Conferences of 1837 and 1841 

I. The Seventh General Conference — 1837, 260 

Adoption of a Constitution, 261 

II. The Eighth General Conference— 1841, 267 

A Second Constitution Adopted, -268 

The Confession of Faith, --271 

Other Business, 272 

III. Personal Notes, - - - -- - - -273 

1. Jacob Erb, 273 

2. Henry Kumler, Jun., - „.._ 275 

3. John Coons, -.-._ --277 



viU CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XVI 

The General. Conferences of 1845 and 1849 

I. Extending the Boundaries, --_ 279 

II. The Ninth General Conference— 1845, 280 

III. The Tenth General Conference— 1849, 282 

IV. Personal Notes, 284 

1. J. J. Glossbrenner, D.D., 284 

2. John Russel, 291 

3. William Hanby, 295 

4. David Edwards, D.D., 298 

CHAPTER XVII 

The General Conferences of 1853-1861 

I. The Home, Frontier, and Foreign Missionary Society, - - - - 303 

II. The Removal of the Publishing House, 304 

III. Lay Representation, -...- 305 

IV. Total Depravity, 306 

V. Secret Societies, 308 

VI. The Slavery Question, 309 

VII. Elections of Bishops, 310 

VIII. Personal Notes, 310 

1. Lewis Davis, D.D., 310 

2. Jacob Markwood, 316 

3. Daniel Shuck, 320 

CHAPTER XVIII 

The General Conferences of 1865-1881 

I. A Period of Progress, 323 

II. Pro Rata Representation, 324 

HI. Lay Representation, '--326 

IV. The Secret-Society Question, 330 

V. Personal Notes, -----333 

1. Jonathan Weaver, D.D., 333 

2. John Dickson, D.D., 338 

3. Nicholas Castle, D.D., 341 

4. Milton Wright, D.D., 343 

5. Ezekiel B. Kephart, D.D., LL.D., 345 



SIXTH PERIOD— 1885-1897 

CHAPTER XIX 

The Nineteenth General Conference— 1885 

I. The Revision Movement, --349 

The Report Authorizing the Church Commission, - - - - 352 

II. The Rule on Secret Societies, 355 

III. The Church Commission Chosen, 356 

IV. Personal Notes, 357 

Daniel Kumler Flickinger, D.D., 357 



CONTENTS ix 

CHAPTER XX 
The Church Commission 

I. Preliminary, = _-._360 

II. The Revised Confession of Faith, -- 362 

III. The Amended Constitution, --- 365 

IV. The Plan of Submission, 367 

V. Opposition to the Revision, 369 

CHAPTER XXI 
The Twentieth General. Conference— 1889 

I. Preliminary, 372 

II. Address of the Bishops, 373 

III. Report of the Church Commission, - - 375 

IV. Approval Recommended, 378 

V. An Olive Branch, 380 

VI. The Proclamation of the Bishops, 381 

VII. A Dramatic Scene— The Secession of the Radicals, - - - - 382 

VIII. The Withdrawal Recognized, 384 

IX. Protests Against the Commission Work,- - - - - ' - - 385 
X. Miscellaneous — Lay Delegation— Licensing Women — Quarterly 

Review— Historical Society— Elections, ------ 386 

XI. Personal Notes, 387 

James W. Hott, D.D., LL.D., 387 

CHAPTER XXII 

A Period of Litigation 

I. The Publishing House Suit, 391 

II. Other Supreme Court Decisions, --395 

CHAPTER XXIII 

The Twenty-First General Conference— 1893 

I. Lay Delegates, -399 

II. Time Limit Removed, -400 

III. Personal Notes, -400 

J. S. Mills, D.D., Ph.D., 400 



PART II 

Departments of Church Work 

CHAPTER I 

The United Brethren Publishing House 

I. Private Enterprise, 405 

II. The Publishing House Organized, 407 

III. The Removal to Dayton, 408 

IV. Material Development, ----------- 409 

1. Finances, 409 

2. Buildings and Equipment, 411 

3. Departments, 411 



X CONTENTS 

V. The Periodical Publications, . - . 412 

1. The Religious Telescope, 412 

2. The Sunday-School Periodicals, 413 

3. The German Periodicals, --------- 414 

4. The Watchword, 415 

5. Magazine Literature, -- 416 

6. Missionary Publications, 417 

' VI. Book Publications, 417 

VIL The Publishing Agents, 418 

VIII. Some of the Editors, 420 

IX. Board of Trustees, 423 

CHAPTER II 

The HoiEE, Feo^ttikk, a^td Foreigis" 31issi02yAiiY Society axd Its Work 

I. The Home and Frontier Field, 424 

II. The Mission in Africa, 434 

The Training School, 445 

A Home of Rest, 446 

III. The Mission in Germany, 447 

IV. The Mission in Japan, 447 

V. Change in Organization, 450 

XI. Summary, 450 

VII. General Officers of the Society, 451 

CHAPTER III 
The Cht:trch:-Erectio>' Society 

I. Organization, - 454 

II. i*rogress and "Work, --.. 455 

CHAPTER IV 

The WoMA2^'s Missionary Association 

I. Organization, -459 

II. The Mission in Africa, -462 

III. A Mission in Germany, 469 

IV. The Chinese Missions, 470 

1. The Mission in Portland, Oregon, 470 

2. The Mission in China, 472 

V. The Woman's Evangel, 474 

VI. Executive Officers, 475 

VII. Summary, 475 

CHAPTER V 
Colleges and Academies 

I. Introductory, 477 

II. Otterbein University, 485 

III. Western College, 495 

IV. Westfleld College, 501 

V. Lane University, 503 

VI. Lebanon Valley College, 506 

VII. Philomath College, 509 

VIII. Avalon College, 511 

IX. San Joaquin Valley College, 513 



CONTENTS xi 

X. Union College, - - 515 

XI. York College, 516 

XII. Shenandoah Institute, ----------- 518 

XIII. Edwards Academy, 519 

XIV. Erie Conference Seminary, ---------- 520 

XV. Other Institutions, 521 

CHAPTER VI 
Union Biblical, Seminary 

I. The Founding, 523 

II. Graduates, 526 

III. Admission of "Women, ----- 527 

IV. The Faculty, 527 

V. Building and Finances, 529 

CHAPTER VII 

The Board of Education 

Origin, Purpose, and Work, ■•--531 

CHAPTER VIII 

SUNDAY-SCHOOIi WORK 

I. A View of the Earlier Work, 533 

II. A General Organization, 537 

CHAPTER IX 
The Young People's Christian Union 

I. Organization, -541 

II. Progress and Work, -----_---._ 545 

CHAPTER X 

The Board of Trustees of the Church 

Origin and Purpose, 549 

CHAPTER XI 

The Historical Society 

Organization and Work, ---551 

PART III 

The Annual Conferences 

CHAPTER I 
A Group of Early Conferences 

I. The Original Conference, ---555 

II. The Miami Conference, 556 

III. The Muskingum Conference, --------- 559 

IV. The Scioto Conference, 560 

V. The Indiana Conference, ---------- 563 

VI. The Virginia Conference, ---------- 564 

VII. The Pennsylvania Conference, -- 567 

VIII. The East Pennsylvania Conference, -- 571 

IX. The Allegheny Conference, 573 



CONTENTS 



X. The Sandusky Conference, ----.---.-577 

XI. The Upper Wabash Conference, 580 

XII. The Lower Wabash Conference, --583 

CHAPTER II 
Other Conferences Organized from 1835 to 1853 

I. The Iowa Conference, 535 

II. The St. Joseph Conference, -587 

III. The Illinois Conference, -588 

IV. The White River Conference, -589 

V. The North Ohio Conference, 59O 

VI. The Ohio German Conference, ----..__. 591 

VII. The Auglaize Conference, - ---593 

VIII. The Rock River Conference, -----___. 594 

IX. The Kentucky Conference, ------___. 595 

CHAPTER III 
Conferences Organized Since 1853 

I. The Erie Conference, --. 597 

II. The Oregon Conference, -598 

III. The Ontario Conference, --------_. 599 

IV. The Parkersburg Conference, 60q 

V. The Kansas Conference, -601 

VI. The Minnesota Conference, -- gQS 

VII. The Missouri Conference, - _. gQ^ 

VIII. The Wisconsin Conference, -------_. ^05 

IX. The California Conference, -- _ go7 

X. The Des Moines Conference, -608 

XI. The Michigan Conference, - . -610 

XII. The Central Illinois Conference, ----.----611 

XIII. The Columbia River Conference, -612 

XIV. The Tennessee Conference, ----.--._ ^13 
XV. The East German Conference, --615 

XVI. The Neosho Conference, --------.. 616 

XVII. The Elkhorn and Dakota Conference, - 617 

XVIII. The Colorado Conference, -618 

XIX. The East Nebraska Conference, -619 

XX. The West Nebraska Conference, - -620 

XXI. The North Michigan Conference, - - 621 

XXII. The Central Ohio Conference, 622 

XXIII. The Northwest Kansas Conference, -624 

XXrV. The Arkansas Valley Conference, --625 

XXV. The Southern Missouri Conference, -------625 

XXVI. The East Ohio Conference, - - - 626 

XXVII. The Maryland Conference, - 628 

XXVIII. The Southwest Kansas Conference, - 629 

XXIX. The Chickamauga Conference, -630 

XXX. The Tennessee River Conference, -630 

XXXI. The Foreign Conferences, 631 

1. The Germany Conference, -- 631 

2. The Sherbro Conference, 632 

3. The Work in Japan and China, - 632 

CONCIiUSION, - 633 



CONTENTS xiii 

i 

PART IV j 

Historical and Statistical Tables i 

I. General Officers, - - - 637 | 

II. General Church Boards, 640 j 

III. Educational Institutions, ----- 641 j 

IV. The Church, 641 j 

Historical Outline, 641 ' 

Growth in Membership, - . - - 642 i 

General Conferences, 642 

Organization of Annual Conferences, 642 j 

Statistics for 1896, 644 ' 

Comparative Statistics, 1813-1896, - 646 

Statistics as Given by Census of 1890, by States, - - - - 649 

Summary of Church Property, 649 ! 

Sunday Schools, 650 " 

Ordination of Bishops, 650 I 

BlBMOGRAPHY, 651 

Appendices— 

I. — Changes in the Confession of Faith, 657 

II.— Decisions of the Supreme and Circuit Courts in the Publishing 

House Suit, 665 

Index, 675 ' 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Wii.i^iAM Ottkrbein,! - . - - . Frontispiece 

OPPOSITK PAGK 

DiLLENBURG IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, - - - - - - - 20 

WlI^LIAM 0TTEKBEIN,2 28 

Martin Boehm, --------- 64 

Isaac Long's Barn, .---..- 80 

Otterbein's Church, Baltimore, - - - - 88 

Otterbein's Church and Tomb in 1897,- - - - 89 

Home of Peter Kemp, - 160 

Bonnet's School-House, . . - - - 223 

Joseph Hoffman, -------------- 276 

William Brown, - - 276 

Jacob Erb, 276 

Henry Kumler, Jun., -------- 276 

John Coons, -------- 277 

John Russel, -------- 277 

William Hanby, - - - - 277 

Lewis Davis, ----- 277 

Jacob J. Glossbrenner, - - - 284 

David Edwards, 298 

Jacob Mabkwood, - 322 

John Dickson, - - - - - 322 

William R. Rhinehart, ----- 322 

John C. Bright, - 322 

Solomon Vonnieda, ------ 323 

William Mittendorf, - - 323 

David L. Rike, --------- 323 

Jacob Hoke, --------------- 323 

Jonathan Weaver, ------- 334 

The United Brethren Publishing House in 1897, 405 

The United Brethren Publishing House at Circleville, - - - 412 

The United Brethren Publishing House at Dayton in 1854, - - 413 

Otterbein University— Main Building, -------- 488 

Christian Association Building, Otterbein University, - - - 489 

Western College— Main Building, 496 

Union Biblical Seminary, ----------- 528 

John Kemp, - - 529 

^A steel engraving from an oil painting from life by Jarvis, the original 
being in possession of Mr. George Hoffman, of Leesburg, Virginia, for whose 
grandfather, Mr. Peter Hoffman, a vestryman in Otterbein's church, the paint- 
ing was made, in October, 1810. 

«From a lithograph based upon an oil painting in possession of the Metho- 
dist Historical Society at Baltimore, Maryland. 



PART 1 

GENERAL HISTORY 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 

OF THE 

United Brethren in Christ 

PART I 
GENERAL HISTORY 

Introductory Period— 1752-1774 
preliminary 

The Church of the United Brethren in Christ had its 
origin in the revival movement which prevailed in 
America during the latter half of the eighteenth and the 
earlier years of the nineteenth century. The state of 
religion in the colonies previous to this revival period had 
fallen to a very low plane. The historic New England 
revival, in which Jonathan Edwards was a leading figure, 
popularly called "The Great Awakening," was followed by 
a strong reaction, and spirituality had declined to a con- 
dition lower if possible than in the period preceding. 
Elsewhere in the colonies the same unhappy conditions 
existed. Dead formalism in the church services and open 
and unrebuked immorality among communicants broadly 
prevailed. The great revival in the British Islands, 
under John and Charles Wesley and their assisting lay 
preachers, was not yet felt on the western side of the 
great waters. The brief visit of the Wesley s to Georgia, 
in the early beginnings of their career, was undertaken 
chiefly as a mission to the Indians of that colony, and 

2 17 



18 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

but little permanent fruit resulted. The visits of George 
Wtiitefield to the same colony were extended northward 
along the Atlantic Coast as far as Maine, and wherever 
he went his preaching awakened the profoundest interest. 
Whether coo2Derating, as he did, with Edwards, or pushing 
his extended journeys up and down the line of the colonies, 
thousands hastened to hear his brilliant eloquence, and 
everywhere religious enthusiasm was kindled to a white 
heat. But notwithstanding all this apj^arent success, and 
the fact that many hundred professed conversion under 
his preaching, and that in his burning zeal he thirteen 
times crossed the Atlantic, it remains true that soon after 
his death the work lapsed so effectually that Methodism 
does not date its origin in America to the visits of any 
of these distinguished apostles of that period. 

It was about this time, in the opening years of the 
second half of the eighteenth century, that a j^oung man 
of scholarly accomplishments, and a heart burning with 
holy zeal, came as a missionary to America, who, after 
his more perfect enlightenment and deeper experience in 
the mysteries of the gospel, was to become, under the 
direction of Divine Providence, the principal founder of 
the Church of whose origin and progressive development 
these pages are to speak, — the Rev. Philip William 
Otterbein. The early history of any denomination is 
largely the history of the men under whose labors such 
denomination took form. Hence the story of the founding 
will be best told by a sketch of some of the men whose 
work assumed the larger proportions, wdth such review of 
their labors as may be practicable. And here we are 
met, at the outset, with a fact that has proved a most 
serious difficulty to the historians of nearly all the older 
religious denominations — the extreme paucity of materials 
in the earlier periods of their history. In the case of 



PRELIMINAR Y 19 

the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, this is 
conspicuously true. The founders of the Church for a 
long time had little thought of forming an independent 
church organization, and when once Providence so clearly 
marked out their course that they could not do otherwise 
than take those steps which must lead to a separate denom- 
inational life, they for the most part gave themselves little 
concern as to what the world coming after them should 
know of their personal history, or of the labors they 
undertook, and the rich vintage which, through great toil 
and sacrifice, they succeeded in gathering for the Master. 



CHAPTER I 

PHILIP WILLIAM OTTERBEIN 

I. PARENTAGE, BIRTH, AND EARLY YEARS OF 
MR. OTTERBEIN. 

Philip William Otterbein, whose name stands con- 
spicuous above the names of his fellow-laborers as the 
founder of the United Brethren Church, was born in the 
town of Dillenburg, in the duchy of Nassau, Germany, 
on the third day of June,^ 1726. This town of Dillen- 
burg was for several centuries, in the older Germany, of 
considerable importance, being the place of residence of a 
long line of princes, some of whom gained note in history. 
Nassau, bordering in part on the river Rhine, and now 
known on the map as Wiesbaden, is one of the most fertile 
districts of Germany. It embraces an area of a little over 
eighteen hundred square miles, and contains at the present 
time a population of about half a million, the greater 
number of whom are Protestants. Besides furnishing, in 
the earlier times, an emperor to Germany, it reached also 

1 Several different dates have been named as the time of Otterbein's birth. 
A Baltimore daily, at the time of his death, gave the date as June 2. The 
inscription on his tomb in the cemetery connected with the old Otterbein 
Church in Baltimore gives the date as June 4. This seems to follow the creden- 
tials given him by the faculty at Herborn when he was about to start for 
America. The baptismal record preserved in the old church at Dillenburg 
gives June 3 as the day, the ceremony of baptism occurring on June 6. Rev. 
Henry G. Spayth, in his "History of the United Brethren in Christ," gives 
March 6 as the date ; upon what authority is not now known. I. D. Rupp 
gives November 6. In all these varying dates there is no disagreement as to 
the year— that is, 1726. Since the baptism occurred but three days after the 
birth, every presumption seems to favor the date given in the old record as 
the correct one. A transcript of this record appears in the Life of Otterbein 
by Prof. A. W. Drury. See Dr. A. W. Drury's Life of JPhilip William Otterbein, 
pp. 24, 25; also p. 22 in this volume. 

20 



PHILIP WILLIAM OTTERBEIN 21 

the higher distinction of giving to Europe the line of the 
Orange princes. The conditions of cHmate and soil and 
the relationship of boundaries were favorable to the pro- 
duction of a sturdy, intelligent, and thrifty population, and 
such were the characteristics of its inhabitants from an 
early period. 

The town of Dillenburg is picturesquely situated on 
the river Dille, from which it takes its name. The town 
is built on the sloping land bordering on the river, while 
the ancient castle stood on the hill overlooking the river 
and valley. This castle stood in the time when Mr. 
Otterbein was born, and for over thirty years longer, as 
the proud defense of the city. It was the home of an 
illustrious line of princes, among whom was counted Wil- 
liam the Silent, who was born within its walls, and 
inheriting large possessions in the Netherlands achieved 
the independence of that country. In 1760 this castle 
yielded to the assaults of the French, and after remaining 
for more than a century a dreary ruin, it was succeeded 
by a noble monument to the memory of William, erected 
jointly by the people of Holland and Nassau. The 
monument was dedicated in June, 1875. 

But we are for the present interested more in a plain 
but substantial old home at the foot of the hill than in 
this proud palace of the early rulers, just as the humble 
manger and its lowly surroundings of an ancient town in 
Judea hold for us a stronger fascination than the stately 
dwellings or the royal courts of imperial Jerusalem ; a 
home from whose door came forth no mailed warrior, armed 
with sword or spear, but instead a divinely appointed 
messenger, whose service should be rich with blessing to 
his fellow-men for generations to come. Just to the right 
of the castle, as seen in our illustration, and in the rear 
of the church, whose spire points toward heaven, remains 



22 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

to this day the soHdly built house in which the Otterbein 
family for a number of years resided, and in which Mr. 
Otterbein first opened his eyes to the light. Close to this 
old residence stands also the building in which was kept 
the Reformed Latin school over which Mr. Otterbein's 
father was principal. The church is Eeformed, and in its 
archives remains the record of Mr. Otterbein's birth and 
baptism.^ The population of Dillenburg in the middle of 
the eighteenth century was about three thousand. This 
number has been but slightly advanced since then, being 
now about four thousand. 

II. THE OTTERBEIN FAMILY. 

The prophet Isaiah directed the people of his time to 
look back to the rock whence they were hewn, and to 
the hole of the pit whence they were digged, to Abraham 
their father, and to Sarah that bare them.^ And so it 
may be profitable for us here to look to the family and 
surroundings from which God brought forth that man 
of refined and thorough culture, and of deep and fervent 
spirituality, who was to achieve so blessed a work in the 
New World, and whose memory was to be so lovingly 
embalmed in the hearts of so many thousands. 

The history of the Otterbein family is preserved from 
the middle of the seventeenth century. It was in the 
year 1650 that John Otterbein came to Dillenburg, and 
was appointed to the office of court-trumpeter. One 
of his sons, Charles Frederick, marrying the daughter of 

iThe following is the entry: "To Mr. John Daniel Otterbein, prseceptori 
primario [rector, or principal] of the Latin school, and Mrs. Wilhelmina 
Henrietta, were born twins on the third of June, early in the morning at 
two o'clock. The older is a son, and the second a daughter. Both were bap- 
tized on the sixth of June. The godfather for the son was Philip William 
Keller, steward of the kitchen [Kiichenmeister] to the court; the godmother 
for the second, wife of Mr. John Martin Keller, butler [Kellermeister] to the 
court. The son was called Philip William, and the daughter Anna Margaret." 
— Drury's Life of Otterbein, p. 25. 

ajsa. 51: 1,2. 



PHILIP WILLIAM OTTERBEIN 23 

Pastor Hatzfeldt, of Driedorf, became the father of John 
Daniel, and through him the grandfather of Philip Wil- 
liam Otterbein. The strong religious instinct which so 
notably distinguished the Otterbein name, began to have 
a decided development in the family of Charles Frederick, 
two of his six children becoming ministers. From this 
time forward for several generations the family abounds 
with names distinguished alike for learning and piety. 
Thus Mr. Otterbein's grandfather, his father, and his 
father's brother were ministers, as were also his brothers, 
five in number, and the four sons of his oldest brother. 

John Daniel, the father of Philip William Otterbein, 
was born two centuries ago, on the sixth of September, 
1696. He was a man of fine culture and abilities, and 
became principal of the Reformed Latin school in the 
place of his birth. His learning was recognized by 
the faculty at Herborn in an official document, the 
original of which is yet preserved. On his mother's side 
Mr. Otterbein was equally favored in the endowment 
which comes with birth. Wilhelmina Henrietta, the 
daughter of John Jacob Hoerlen, who became the wife 
of John Daniel Otterbein, was a woman of rare intel- 
lectual and spiritual worth, as well as of fine personal 
accomplishments, and was eminently fitted by her natural 
and acquired gifts to train to manhood a son who was 
destined to so illustrious a mission in life. The hon- 
ored faculty at Herborn, the school in which his sons 
were educated, and in which Mr. Otterbein was for a time 
a preceptor, spoke of her in an official paper in terms of 
highest commendation. But we see the triumph of her 
heroic qualities rather in the successful rearing of her large 
family, after the early death of her husband, her six sons 
completing the full course of study, literary and theo- 
logical, required in the school at Herborn, and all of them 



24 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

becoming ministers of the gospel of Christ. Nothing could 
give stronger proof of high moral and intellectual char- 
acter, as well as of the deeper maternal and religious 
instincts, than the ability to exert such an influence over 
a large family of sons, and lead them, without an excep- 
tion, to so honorable a goal. The one daughter whom she 
reared gave proof of the same type of character as the sons, 
in becoming the wife of a Reformed minister. 

Mr. Otterbein's father, having served in the Latin school 
at Dillenburg for a period of nine years, accepted, in the 
spring of 1728, the pastoral care of two congregations, one 
at Frohnhausen, and the other at Wissenbach. Frohn- 
hausen was situated three miles north of Dillenburg, and 
being the larger of the two places, he removed there. His 
pastorate here continued for fourteen years, when it was 
terminated by his death, in 1742. Philip "William, the 
second of the sons who lived to maturity, was at the time 
of the removal to Frohnhausen not quite two years old, 
and was about sixteen at the time of his father's death. 
All the younger children were born in Frohnhausen, and 
at the time of the father's death the youngest was only 
four years old. Only slender means were left for the 
future support of the mother and family, but Mrs. 
Otterbein, while she could have remained for a year in 
the parsonage, decided to remove at once to Herborn, 
where the education of her children, broken off by the 
father's untimely death, could be continued under favor- 
able conditions. In 1744 the oldest son, John Henry, 
then twenty-two years of age, received an appointment as 
teacher in Herborn, which brought him an income equal 
to one-half his father's salary, and the year following 
he was made vicar at Ockersdorf In 1748, six years 
after the death of his father, Philip William, then twenty- 
two years of age, was made a preceptor in Herborn. The 



PHILIP WILLIAM OTTEBBEIN 25 

income of his older brother had all been given for the 
support of the family and the education of its younger 
members, and that of Philip William was now added for 
the same object until, several years later, he set sail for his 
new field of labor in America. Thus the noble spirit of 
the older sons was manifested in the assistance which 
they gave to the mother and the younger children, 
enabling the younger sons as they grew up to enter upon 
the same advantages which the toils and sacrifices of the 
mother had secured for them. The third son, when he 
reached maturity, received a like appointment in the 
school, and, like his older brothers, devoted his earnings 
to the support of the mother and the education of the 
children who were below him in age. 

To John Daniel and Wilhelmina Henrietta Otterbein 
there were born ten children — seven sons and three 
daughters. Two of the daughters died in infancy, and 
one son at twelve years of age. The remaining six sons 
all lived to maturity, and, as already noted, all became 
ministers, their ages at death ranging from sixty-eight to 
eighty-seven, the last being the age of William. Three 
of them became authors, publishing works on various 
subjects. George Godfrey, the fourth son, energetically 
opposed the rising tide of the rationalism of that day. 
He published three volumes on the Heidelberg Cate- 
chism. His writings on this and other subjects, it is 
said, were of a high order, and some of them found 
their way to America. John Daniel, the fifth son, also 
author of a work on the Heidelberg Catechism, was pro- 
moted to a seat in the consistory. John Charles, the 
third son, spent his entire mature life at Herborn, and 
in connection with the school, being teacher or professor 
in the institution to the end of his life, for ten years its 
co-rector, or vice-president, and during the last seventeen 



26 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

years its rector, or president. It fell to the lot of this 
son to take affectionate care of the mother of this noble 
family in her later years, she, like her sons, dying at an 
advanced age.^ 

III. THE SCHOOL AT HERBOKN. 

Herborn was a small town contiguous to Dillenburg and 
Frohnhausen, being situated about three miles south from 
the former. It contained about twenty-five hundred in- 
habitants. Of the noted school at this place, in which the 
sons of the Otterbein family were educated, and which 
contributed in so great a degree in developing the high 
type of character to which they attained, something further 
is here to be said. The school was founded in the year 
1584, a little over four centuries ago, and while the fires of 
the Reformation were yet warmly burning. Its professors 
were men of decided character, distinguished alike for 
sound learning and for a distinct apprehension of the 
meaning of a spiritual Christianity. The school embraced 
the several departments belonging to institutions of the 
higher grades at that time, and while it did not quite 
reach, it approached nearly in type to the German uni- 
versity. Its theological course is said to have been rather 
more full than those of the theological seminaries of the 
present time. 

Among the most distinguished names of its professors in 
the time to which our history belongs, were those of Dr. 
John Henry Schramm, Dr. Valentine Arnold, and Dr. John 
Eberhardt Rau. Dr. Schramm was the head of the insti- 
tution, and was at the same time chief pastor of the local 
church at Herborn. He was especially distinguished for 
his clear conception of the spiritual and practical aspects 
of the Christian faith. Dr. Arnold, born at Dillenburg in 

1 Drury's Life of Otterbein, pp. 31-34. 



PHILIP WILLIAM OTTEBBEIN 27 

1712, had been a student in the Latin school under John 
Daniel Otterbein, and formed a special attachment to the 
son, Philip William. Dr. Drury, in his Life of Otterbein, 
remarks of him that he "was a man of lovely and noble 
character, a man of faith and zeal," and that "he attained 
renown in Oriental and rabbinical literature." Dr. Rau 
also acquired distinction as a scholar in Oriental learning, 
and wrote a number of volumes on Oriental subjects. 
These men, further, were in intimate correspondence with 
the most spiritual of the theologians of the Netherlands, as 
well as with men of like character in other parts of con- 
tinental Europe, and in the British Islands. The writings 
of Philip Doddridge, which exerted so wholesome an 
influence in quickening a deeper piety, were read by them, 
with pleasure and commended to their students. It will 
thus be seen that while the best opportunities for scholastic 
attainment were presented to Mr. Otterbein, the spiritual 
influences in the school combined with those of his pious. 
home to develop in him those high ideas of spiritual life 
which proved so potent an agency in the great work 
upon which he was to enter in the field for which God 
was preparing him. It will be in place to add here that, 
while the theology of the Reformed Church was sub- 
stantially Calvinistic, the peculiar tenets of that form of 
faith were held less rigidly at Herborn, as indeed among 
German scholars generally, than they were in Holland 
and other parts of Europe. This fact may account in 
some degree for the readiness with which Mr. Otterbein 
found himself able, in more advanced life, to enter into 
harmonious fellowship with men educated in other schools 
of faith, but partaking of the same earnest spiritual life, 
and in time to become the founder and chief leader of a 
church whose faith found expression in Arminian sym- 
bols. 



28 THE UNITED BRETHBEN IN CHRIST 

IV. WORK IN HERBORN AND OCKERSDORF. 

It was not an unusual thing in Germany for candidates 
for the holy ministry, after leaving college, to spend some 
time as private instructors in families of wealth and sta- 
tion. A special advantage thus secured was a degree of 
experience in teaching which fitted them the better for 
the work of catechetical instruction in the congregations 
of which they might afterward become pastors. Mr. 
Otterbein, in accordance with this custom, spent a short 
time as a "house-teacher," in the duchy of Berg, about 
one hundred miles from Herborn. He was, however, soon 
called back to service in the institution which had given 
him his education. Meanwhile, perhaps from considera- 
tions of modesty, he had not presented himself in an 
official way as a candidate for sacred orders. His appoint- 
ment as a preceptor in Herborn made it necessary to take 
this step, and he passed the required examination. This 
was in 1748, and he was now nearly twenty -two years of 
age. About a year later he was appointed by the con- 
sistory at Dillenburg to the position of vicar at Ockersdorf, 
his older brother having accepted a charge at another 
place. This made it necessary that he receive full ordi- 
nation as a minister, and he was accordingly ordained in 
the old church at Dillenburg on June 13, 1749.^ 

Ockersdorf was a small village about a mile from Her- 
born, and was under the charge of the second pastor at 
Herborn. There was only one church in Herborn, not- 
withstanding the considerable size of the town. Dr. 
Arnold was chief pastor. Both of these churches were 
served by the professors in the school, and Mr. Otterbein 
now performed the twofold duties of teacher and pastor. 
In addition to his Sabbath preaching he was required to 
preach also on the first Wednesday of each month, and on 

1 Drury's Life of Otterbein, p. 44. 






(yrO^v 



PHILIP WILLIAM OTTERBEIN 29 

festival days. But, what may be a surprise to some 
readers, he was also required to hold a weekly meeting 
for prayer, an unusual form of service in the churches of 
Germany then as now. Was it here that he received a part 
of that special practical experience which proved so 
efiPectual in his evangelistic work in America when he 
entered upon this broader field? Thus Mr. Otterbein was 
made familiar from the beginning of his ministerial life 
with this form of service, which has proved so invaluable 
in encouraging a deeper devotional spirit in the church.^ 
This twofold relation as pastor and preceptor Mr. 
Otterbein sustained for a period of four years, until he 
was called to become a missionary to America, his duties 
also requiring him to preach statedly at another small 
village, near Ockersdorf, and in Herborn. To this work 
he brought the full measure of his youthful zeal. He was 
himself profoundly convinced of the truth of the gospel 
of Christ, and of the necessity for a pure life and an 
earnest religious spirit. This was in accordance with the 
training of his devout mother, and in harmony with the 
teaching he had received from the evangelical men who 
occupied the chairs of the Herborn school. But it was 
not to be expected that there would be a unanimous 
response of approval from the people to whom he preached. 
The stern rebukes of sin in high and in humbler life, and 
the earnest exhortations to forsake their evil-doing and 
enter upon a purer life and into a deeper spiritual expe- 
rience, naturally awakened opposition on the part of some 
of his hearers. So strong did this adverse feeling become 
that some of the opposers invoked the authorities to put 
a check upon him. Others, however, warmly welcomed 
his earnest messages, and gave him their hearty support. 
His pious mother, deeply moved by these oppositions 

^ See Drury's Life of Otterbein, pp. 42-46. 



30 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

against her son, and with a wise discernment of the true 
situation, said : "Ah, William, I expected this, and give 
you joy. This place is too narrow for you, my son ; 
they will not receive you here ; you will find your 
work elsewhere." She was also sometimes heard to say, 
as with the instinct of an interpreter of the divine pur- 
poses, "My William will have to be a missionary; he is 
so frank, so open, so natural, so prophet-like."^ It is 
greatly to the credit of his superiors in the Herborn 
faculty and of the authorities at Dillenburg, and indi- 
cates the predominant religious tone in the school and 
among those whom it influenced most, that there w^as 
no interference with Mr. Otterbein's manner of preach- 
ing, and that he continued in unbroken relation with 
both the faculty and the Ockersdorf church until he 
was dismissed with great honor to go to his field in the 
New World. 

Mr. Otterbein's certificate of ordination is a document 
of special interest, and a copy is herewith presented. It 
will be noticed by its date that the certificate was written 
nearly three years after the event, and w^as intended to be a 
credential certifying to his ordination as well as general 
character when about to "emigrate to foreign shores." 
The certificate is signed by Dr. Schramm, the senior 
professor or president of the Herborn school. Dr. Arnold 
and Pastor Klingelhofer, as appears in the body of the 
certificate, assisted in the ordination. This certificate was 
preserved by Mr. Otterbein, and handed by him to his 
friend Rev. John Hildt, of Baltimore. The original, in 
Latin manuscript, is now in the archives of the United 
Brethren Publishing House, at Dayton, Ohio, having been 
presented to the House by Mr. Hildt. The certificate 
reads as follows : 

1 Spayth's History of the United Brethren in Christ, pp. 19, 20. 



PHILIP WILLIAM OTTERBEIN 31 

LECTORIS SAIiUTEM. 

Reverendus et doctissimus vir juvenis, Philippus Guilhelmus 
Otterbeiiiius, gente Nassauius, domo Dillenburgensis, S. Ministerii 
Candidatus, classis tertise hujus psedagogii x)r8eceptor, mauuiim 
impositione adsistentibus CI. Arnoldo, professore atque primario 
coetus Herbornensis pastore, et admodum reverendo Klingelhofero 
ejusdem ecclesise secundario, ut vicariani in coetu Ockersdorpiano 
prsestaret opem, 13 Junii, 1749, ordinationis a me impetravit axioma. 
Quod his ad ejus requisitionem testor, et dilecto meo quondam audi- 
tori in peregrinas abiturienti oras, fausta qusevis prosperumque iter ex 
aninio precor, constantis mei adversus eum adfectus monimentum. 
, r—"--^ JoH. Henricus 8chrammius, 

\ Signum \ Theologia Doctor et Ecclestarum Nassmiicaruvi Superintendens. 

Herborn^, III. Calendas Martias, MDCCLII. 

The following is the translation as given by Professor 
Drury in his Life of Otterbein. 

TRANSLATION. 

To the Header^ Greeting: — 

The reverend and very learned young man, Phihp William Otter- 
bein, from Dillenburg, in Nassau, a candidate of the holy ministry, 
and a teacher of the third class in this school, received of me, assisted 
by Cl.i Arnold, professor and first pastor of the congregation at 
Herborn, and by the Reverend Klingelhofer, second pastor of the 
same church, on the 13th of June, 1749, the rite of ordination by 
the laying on of hands, that he might perform the functions of vicar, 
in the congregation at Ockersdorf. This I certify at his request; and 
to my much esteemed former hearer, who is now about to emigrate 
to foreign shores, I earnestly wish all good fortune and a prosperous 
voyage, and subscribe this letter as a testimonial of my never-failing 
affection towards him. 
, . — ' — s -. John Henry Schramm, 

<. Seal. V Doctor of Theology and Superintendent of the Church of Nassau. 

Herborn, February 28, 1752.^ 

V. THE CALL TO AMERICA. 

We have seen that Mr. Otterbein's mother had a strong 
premonition that her son was destined to become a mis- 
led." here stands as an abbreviation for Clarissimus, a title often prefixed 
to the names of German professors. The term means "most illustrious." 
The title might be rendered, "His Highness." 
' Drury 's Life of Otterbein, pp. 44, 45. 



32 THE UNITED BRETHBEN IN CHRIST 

sionary to some foreign land. No long time was to elapse 
until the pious intuitions of her devout spirit were to be 
realized in a call for a service for which his thorough 
education and his eminently spiritual training, both in 
the home and in the school, peculiarly fitted him. The 
call came with great clearness and force. Never since 
the days of Paul was the cry, "Come over and help 
us," more surely the voice of God than was the earnest 
pleading of the destitute in the American colonies for the 
bread of life. And never was there a heartier or more 
unhesitating response than that when the cultured young 
Otterbein forsook the associations amid which he was 
reared, and where he was w^orking with success and abun- 
dant promise of future honor, to consecrate himself, with 
the companions who joined him, to the work of evangeli- 
zation in the New World. 

The religious needs of the German settlers in America, 
especially in the colonies of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 
Maryland, and Virginia, had for some time been attracting 
the attention of the church in Europe, and limited supplies 
of ministers and money had been sent over for their relief. 
The supplies of money, however, as we shall see more 
fully, came from the Dutch Reformed Church of Holland, 
rather than from the German Reformed Church in Ger- 
many, due to the larger means of the Netherlanders and 
the comparative poverty of the Germans. The Dutch had 
also been earliest on the American soil, preceding by almost 
a century any considerable immigration of Germans, and 
New Amsterdam, named for the old Amsterdam of Hol- 
land, had become a considerable city before passing into 
the hands of the English and becoming New York. The 
Dutch Reformed Church thus became one of the earliest 
of the Protestant churches established on American soil. 
The Germans did not come in any marked numbers until 



PHILIP WILLIAM OTTEBBEIN 33 

the cruel hand of persecution was stretched out against 
them. The famous edict of Nantes, promulgated by Henry 
IV., in 1598, had for nearly ninety years secured a partial 
toleration to the Reformed Church in France. The revo- 
cation of this instrument by the cruel persecutor, Louis 
XIV., in 1685, on the shameless pretext that there were no 
longer any Protestants in France, and that its provisions 
were therefore no longer needed, with the increased per- 
secutions which immediately began to follow, greatly 
stimulated emigration. But not only was the outflow of 
French Huguenots, or Calvinists, greatly augmented, until 
it reached by conservative estimates from three to four 
hundred thousand people, but the repeated devastations 
of the Palatinate, a middle country of the Rhine, led to 
the exile, first, of many thousands of Germans to other 
European countries, as Holland, Switzerland, and England, 
and subsequently of many of them to America. The evil 
hand of this remorseless monarch was first laid upon this 
peaceful district in 1674, and afterward, subsequent to the 
revocation, in 1688, and again in 1693. Of the Huguenots 
some sought refuge in Brazil, South America, others in 
Florida, and others in South Carolina, while others still 
found shelter among the colonies farther to the north. 
The Germans who fled from the Palatinate, after a brief 
sojourn in the several European countries which first gave 
them asylum, sought homes chiefly in the middle colonies 
already named. Some of them formed considerable set- 
tlements on the Hudson and in other parts of the colony 
of New York, but receiving ungenerous treatment by the 
civil government, they left again the homes they had 
established, and came into Pennsylvania. Settling in 
large numbers in Berks, Lancaster, Bucks, and others 
of the eastern counties of Pennsylvania, they laid the 
foundations of those strong German communities whose 



34 THE UNITED BBETHBEN IN CHBIST 

descendants have ever since constituted so solid a portion 
of the best citizenship of that now great commonwealth, 
and who have contributed so substantially to the best bone 
and sinew of all the States westward. Religiously, these 
people were comprehended chiefly in about three denomi- 
nations — German Reformed, Lutherans, and Mennonites. 
The Reformed were the most numerous of these, and the 
Mennonites the least. Singularly enough, the last named, 
having found a refuge first among the generous Hol- 
landers, were presently unwelcome because they did not 
subscribe to the Calvinistic tenets of the Dutch church, 
and so they set forth again to find, on the soil of the 
new continent, unrestricted religious freedom — the precious 
boon which so many of the oppressed and persecuted in 
the old country so earnestly coveted. Of the Germans 
who were invited by Queen Anne to find refuge in her 
dominions, some were settled by her in Ireland, thus 
giving rise to the people still known as Irish Germans, 
while others were assisted by her in coming to America. 
The favorable terms proposed by William Penn to immi- 
grants began to induce the Germans to form settlements 
in Pennsylvania as early as 1681, but in the first 
twenty years from that date the number coming into 
the colony scarcely exceeded two hundred families. In 
the next quarter of a century from forty to fifty thousand 
came, and twenty years later, or about the middle of 
the century, near the time of Mr. Otterbein's arrival, 
when the whole number of settlers in the colony reached 
about one hundred and ninety thousand, fully ninety 
thousand were Germans. Of these, about one-third, or 
about thirty thousand, were connected with the German 
Reformed Church. Of many of them the church connec- 
tion was only nominal, as they were largely without 
organized societies, without houses for worship, and with- 



PHILIP WILLIAM OTTERBEIN 35 

out pastors, and adults and children alike in great num- 
bers were unbaptized. 

In this condition of things many of the settlers lapsed 
into spiritual apostasy, and often even into gross immo- 
rality. Many, on the other hand, preserved as best they 
could both the spirit and the forms of worship. The few 
pastors who were among them, of both the Reformed and 
Lutheran churches, looked anxiously across the waters, as 
did also many of the laity, for help. Shepherds were greatly 
needed to gather together into congregations these scattered 
sheep, and to minister to them statedly the word of life. 
Scarcely more than half a dozen ministers of the Reformed 
Church had the care of the people of their name scattered 
widely through the several colonies. Some of the people 
were served by ministers taking the oversight of several 
congregations, after the manner of the circuits which 
became so familiar later ; others were visited once or twice 
a year by pastors leaving their own fields and making long 
journeys for this special service, while many were seen 
only at intervals of several years. It was in response to 
earnest appeals for help from these destitute people that 
the Dutch Reformed Church in Holland began to send 
missionaries, with money for their partial support, to the 
American colonies. And it should be particularly noted 
as something quite out of the order which we are accus- 
tomed to see, and greatly to the honor of the church of 
Holland, that the missionaries of whom we here speak 
were not sent to build up their own Dutch Reformed 
denomination, but to aid the German Reformed Church 
in caring for its scattered and needy people. Missionaries 
were sent as needed to their own people, but this much 
larger work was undertaken with large-hearted generosity 
purely in the interest of saving souls, while the imme- 
diate results were to be garnered by another denomination 



36 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

— a people indeed of like form in organization and holding 
the same essential doctrinal standards, but which have 
to the present day maintained a separate existence, and 
have grown to fair proportions among the American 
churches, while the Dutch church has been limited in its 
growth largely to lines of national descent. This generous 
missionary work of the Dutch Reformed Church was 
carried on in regularly organized form, and for a series 
of years. The Classis of Amsterdam, and the synods of 
South and North Holland, had a standing committee 
through which appointments of missionaries were made, 
and for receiving and disbursing the funds which were 
contributed for this worthy object. Besides the contribu- 
tions which were annually made, the sum of sixty thousand 
dollars was raised, the interest of which was applied to 
the erection of churches and school-houses, and to main- 
taining schools and supporting missionaries. It was 
through this generous bounty of the Netherland Chris- 
tians that Mr. Otterbein was sent to the American field. 

These earlier conditions of the German population of the 
colonies, their needs, and the part taken by the Holland 
church for their relief, are thus dwelt upon at length, 
for the purpose of presenting to the reader a more perfect 
understanding of the field in which Mr. Otterbein began 
and through the later years carried on his American work. 

Here it will be in order to speak of one missionary 
whose name claims a conspicuous place in the early his- 
tory of the German Reformed Church in America, and 
through whose agency Mr. Otterbein was brought across 
the sea, namely, the Rev. Michael Schlatter. To this man 
more than to any other that church is indebted, not indeed 
for its founding, for he was not the founder, but for the 
eff'ective organization of its scattered congregations and 
ministers into a consistent religious body. Mr. Schlatter 



PHILIP WILLIAM OTTERBEIN 37 

was a native of St. Gall, Switzerland, at that time one of the 
largest of the Swdss cities, was educated for the ministry, 
served for some years as teacher and pastor in his native 
country and Holland, and afterward offered himself for 
the missionary work in America. He went to Amsterdam, 
presented himself before the deputies of ihe synods of 
South and North Holland, was accepted by them, and 
duly commissioned to proceed to the work. He was yet 
a young man, not quite thirty years of age, full of zeal 
and enthusiasm, and ready to enter with earnest purpose 
upon the work to which for forty-five years he gave his 
best endeavors. The duties enjoined upon him by the 
deputies for this first mission were chiefly those of a 
superintendent of the work, though he was not known 
by this name. He was to visit the various settlements, 
look up the members of the Reformed Church, organize 
them into societies by ordaining deacons and elders, bap- 
tize their children, administer the Lord's supper, prepare 
church records, and as far as possible secure for them 
pastors. These labors Mr. Schlatter performed with great 
diligence, through a series of years, traveling often long 
distances, preaching and laboring constantly, adding to 
them also, as far as he could, the duties of a settled pas- 
tor, during his earlier years, at Philadelphia. He w^as, in 
reality, in the truest sense a bishop over the Reformed 
Church in America, as the Rev. Henry M. Muhlenberg 
was, and had been for some time, among the Lutherans, 
and as Mr. Otterbein came to be in time among the more 
spiritually vitalized societies of the early United Brethren 
Church. Each of these men was a resident pastor while 
performing also these wider duties — Mr. Muhlenberg in 
New York, and Mr. Otterbein in Baltimore. Mr. Schlatter 
arrived in America for the first time in 1746. Five years 
later, in 1751, he returned to Holland carrying the earnest 



38 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

prayers of the American churches for additional mis- 
sionaries. 

Mr. Schlatter, immediately on his arrival at Amsterdam, 
met the deputies, or standing committee, of the Dutch 
Reformed Synod, and laid before them at length his report 
of the work in America, with the prayer also for addi- 
tional missionaries and further financial assistance. His 
report and his request were received with the warmest 
approval, and he was presently authorized to proceed to 
Germany and procure six young men, educated and 
consecrated, for the work, with promise of all necessary 
financial support. He was further instructed, however, to 
visit the churches in Germany and Switzerland and solicit 
such further help as they might be able to give for the 
support of the general work. The limited resources of 
the Reformed churches in Germany, through the impov- 
erishment of wars and religious persecutions, strengthened 
the appeal to Netherland generosity ; nevertheless the 
opportunity was thus given to the Germans to assist in 
the work. Mr. Schlatter went at once to Herborn, the 
evangelical spirit prevailing in the school doubtless at- 
tracting him there, to find the young men whom he sought. 
There was a ready response to his call, and the volunteers 
for the important mission were soon found. They were 
Mr. Otterbein, William Stoy, John Waldschmidt, Theodore 
Frankenfeld, John Casper Rubel, and one who, yielding 
to the entreaties and tears of his mother, withdrew after 
having pledged himself. His place was at once taken 
by a Mr. Wissler, a young man from Berg, who, with his 
recently married wife, gladly joined the band. 

The names of these young men were presented to the 
faculty of Herborn for approval, which was most cordially 
given. Under date of February 25, 1752, the following 
was written by Dr. Schramm in the record of the Her- 



PHILIP WILLIAM OTTERBEIN 39 

born Academy : "Rev. Schlatter handed me the list of 
candidates whom he desires to take along with him to 
Pennsylvania, and prays that we give them a general 
academical testimonial. Shall they have such?" Follow- 
ing this the second professor of theology, Dr. Ran, wrote : 
"Yes. I hope there is no one that would not rather see 
the ministers desiring this recommendation advanced to 
work in a foreign land than in their home country." 

And here the following will be found to possess a very 
special interest as a historical document. It is the testi- 
monial of the faculty to the standing of young Mr. Otter- 
bein, then as for several years previous a preceptor in the 
school, and vicar at Ockersdorf. It was written and signed 
by Dr. Valentine Arnold, on behalf of the faculty. 

L. S.: 

Inhaber dieses, der Wohl-Ehrwtirdige und Hochgelehrte Hen-, 
HI. Philippe Wilhelm Otterbein, ordinirter Candidatus S. Ministerii, 
bisheriger Prseceptor am hiesigen Psedagogeo und nun berufener 
Prediger in Pensylvanien, ist am 4ten Juni, morgeus zwischen 2 und 
3 Uhr im Jahre 1726 zu Dillenburg, von ehrlichen, und der Evange- 
lisch Reformirten Kirche zugethanen Eltern gebohren, und am 6ten 
dito zur HI. Taufe gebracht worden. Sein HI. Vater ist gewesen der 
weyl. Hochwohl Ehrwtirdige und Hochgelehrte Herr, HI. Johann 
Daniel Otterbein, ehedem wohlmerirter Rector der Lateinischen 
Schule daselbst, nachgehends aber treufleissiger Prediger bei deren 
Gemeinde Frohnhausen und Wissenbach, welcher am 16ten Nov., 
1742, das Zeitliche mit dem Ewigen verwechselt. Die Frau Mutter 
ist die Hoch-Edle und tugendreiche Frau, Frau Wilhelmine Hen- 
riette, so als Wittwe noch Dato am Leben ist. Sie war eine geborne 

. Taufzeuge war HI. Philippe Wilhelm Keller, Hochfiirstl. 

Nassau -Dillenburgische Kiichenmeister, als naher Anverwandter. 
Sr. Wohl-Ehrwurden ist in der Reformirten christl. Religion wohl 
erzogen, und hierauf zum Mitglied dieser Kirche angenommen wor- 
den, hat auch jeder Zeit einen ehrbaren, frommen und christlichen 
Wandel geftihret, und nicht nur mit vielfaltigem Predigen und treuer 
Verkilndigung des gottl. Wortes, sowohl in dieser Stadt, als auf einem 
nahegelegenen hierher gehorigen Dorfe ( wo er als Vicarius den hi. 
Dienst eine geraume Zeitlang versehen) und an andern Orten mehr 
geschehen, sondern auch mit seinem gottseligen Leben die Gemeinden 
erbaut. Weshalben wir nicht zweifeln, er werde auch der fur Ihu 



40 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

bestimmten Gemeinde in Pensylvanien treulich und fruchtbarlich 
vorstehen. Wie wir Ihn denn zu dem Ende des AUmachtigen Schutz 
und Geleite inbriinstig anempfehlen und Ihm zu dem wichtigen 
Werk, wozu Er berufen worden, und sich so bereitfertig finden lassen, 
viele Gnade von Oben, und die reichsten gottl. Segen von Grund der 
Seelen anwiinschen. So geschehen, Herborn, im Furstenthum 
Nassau -Dillenburg, den 26ten Februar, 1752. V. Aunold, 

Professor und erster Prediger daselbsten. 

TRANSLATION. 

To the Reader^ Oreeting: 

The bearer of this, the truly reverend and very learned Mr. Philip 
William Otterbein, an ordained candidate of the holy ministry, 
hitherto preceptor in this psedagogium, and now called as a preacher 
to Pennsylvania, was born June 4,^ 1726, in the morning between 
two and three o'clock, at Dillenburg, of honorable parents belonging 
to the Evangelical Beformed Church, and was baptized June 6. 
His father was the right reverend and very learned Mr. John Daniel 
Otterbein, formerly the highly esteemed rector of the Latin school at 
Dillenburg, but after^vards a faithful, zealous preacher to the congre- 
gations at Frohnhausen and Wissenbach, and who departed from 
time into eternity, November 16, ^ 1742. His mother is the right 
noble and very virtuous woman, Wilhelmina Henrietta, her maiden 

name being . She is alive at this time as a widow. His 

godfather was Mr. Philip William Keller, steward to the court of 
Nassau-Dillenburg, who was a near relative. The truly reverend 
Philip William Otterbein was well raised in the Reformed Christian 
religion, and then received as a member of this church. He has 
always lived an honest, pious, and Christian life; and not only by 
much preaching and faithful declaring of the word of God in this city, 
as also at a near affiliating town where he has been vicar for a consid- 
erable time, and at other places, but also by his godly life, has he built 
up the church. Wherefore we do not doubt that he will faithfully and 
fruitfully serve the church in Pennsylvania, to which he has been 
called. Therefore, to this end, we commend him to the protection 
of the Almighty, whose care and leading we pray upon him; and we 
pray that he may give him much grace from above, and the richest 

> Attention is here again called to the date of Mr. Otterbein's birth here 
given, as differing from that in the baptismal register in the church at Dillen- 
burg, which has been spoken of on page 22. If it is thought singular that 
Mr. Otterbein never corrected the date in this document, we must regard it 
as no less so that he never filled out the blank left for his mother's name. 
It seems likely that he hesitated to make any alteration or amendment in 
this paper, preferring to leave it just as it came from the hands of the 
Herborn faculty. 

*Mr. Cuno gives November 14 as the date. 



PHILIP WILLIAM OTTERBEIN 41 

divine blessing in the work to which he has been called, and to 
which he was so willing to go, and we wish him from the bottom 
of our souls success. So done at Herborn, in the principality of 
Nassau -Dillenburg, February 26, 1752. 

V. Arnold, Professor and First Pastor. 

The young men who were thus recommended were next 
to proceed to Holland for examination and, if approved, 
for special consecration to the foreign work. And now 
came the time for the severest trial of the devoted mother 
of Mr. Otterbein. The long-cherished feeling of her heart 
that a broader field of work was awaiting her son was 
about to be realized, and she could not put forth her 
hand to take back again the precious sacrifice which she 
had placed on the Lord's altar. But her deep soul was 
greatly moved at what seemed to her like a final parting 
with her beloved son. To prepare her heart for the great 
trial, "she hastened to her closet, and, after being relieved 
by tears and prayer, she came from her chamber strength- 
ened, and, taking her William by the hand and pressing 
that hand to her bosom, she said : ' Go ; the Lord bless 
thee and keep thee ; the Lord cause his face to shine 
upon thee, and with much grace direct thy steps. On 
earth I may not see thy face again, but go.'"^ The 
spiritual triumph of the mother in this great ordeal again 
gave proof of that strength of character which was to 
find so noble a development in the son. 

The necessary preparation being completed, Mr. Schlatter 
started with his company of young men for the Nether- 
lands. Arriving at the Hague, a further examination 
was made by the authorized committee as to their fitness 
for the work. It was required that they be "orthodox, 
learned, pious, and of humble disposition ; diligent, sound 
in body, and eagerly desirous, not after earthly, but heav- 
enly treasures, especially the salvation of immortal souls." 

1 Spayth's History of the United Brethren in Christ, p. 21. 



42 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Those who had not been duly ordained to the ministry 
of the word then received this rite, and all were further 
specially consecrated as missionaries. They were required 
to subscribe to the tenets of the Heidelberg Catechism, 
and it was expected that all missionaries sent out by the 
church of Holland accept the catechism in the severer 
interpretations put upon it by the Dutch Reformed Church. 
Arrangements for their necessary expenses, and for their 
partial support in the mission field after entering upon their 
work, being duly completed, the company set sail toward the 
close of March. The voyage was a tedious one, the vessel 
reaching New York as late as the night before the 28th 
of July, after being about four months at sea. "On the 
following day," says Mr. Harbaugh, in his "Life of Michael 
Schlatter," "they were most cordially welcomed by Eev. 
Muhlenberg, who, when the six young ministers were intro- 
duced to him, in view of the difficulties of the field and 
the labor before tliem, very beautifully and appropriately 
addressed them in our Saviour's memorable words : ' Behold, 
I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves : be ye 
therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.' "^ 

1 From, a serial work entitled Monatliche Naehrichten einiger MerkwiXrdigkeiten 
vom Jahr 1752 ("Monthly Reports of Remarkable Events in the Year 1752"), 
published in Zurich. Mr. Harbaugh, in his "Life of Michael Schlatter," trans- 
lates the following item : "Makch. Rev. Michael Schlatter has returned again 
from Frankfort to Amsterdam with his cousin Christopher. As appears from 
a letter of Rev. Hudmaker, he has, through Rev. Prof. Arnold, in Herborn, 
gathered six young candidates, who are to be examined in Holland, and there 
dedicated to the service of the Pennsylvania churches." 

The Monatliche JVachrichten for May, a month later, of the same year, also 
contained the following : " Rev. Michael Schlatter actually sailed from Holland 
for Pennsylvania in March. Of the six candidates whom he secured in Nassau 
district, one went back, yielding to the earnest entreaties of his mother. His 
place has, however, been filled by another from the Berg district, who, with his 
wife, has undertaken the journey. These candidates were all examined and 
ordained at the Hague. They also approved themselves by preaching trial 
sermons, and the whole occasion was concluded in a most solemn and edifying 
manner by a thanksgiving sermon from Rev. Superintendent Schlatter." — 
Harbaugh's Life of Michael Schlatter, pp. 81, 82. 

We have seen that Mr. Otterbein, and probably some of the others, had 
already been duly ordained to the gospel ministry. But here they were espe- 
cially dedicated to the missionary work in America. 



CHAPTER II 

MR. OTTERBEIN IN AMERICA 

I. MR. OTTERBEIN's EARLIER YEARS IN AMERICA PASTOR 

AT LANCASTER. 

Of the company of missionaries brought by Mr. Schlatter 
to America we are now to take leave, with the exception of 
Mr. Otterbein. This brief note, however, should be made : 
After remaining a few days at New York they came on 
with their leader to Philadelphia, and with one exception 
were soon located on the different charges they were to 
serve. Mr. Stoy was assigned to Tulpehocken, a charge 
which Mr. Otterbein served temporarily some years later ; 
Mr. Waldschmidt, to Cocalico ; and Mr. Frankenfeld, to 
Frederick City, Maryland. Mr. Pubel was located in the 
second church in Philadelphia, apparently without the con- 
sent of the coetus or Mr. Schlatter. He seems to have proved 
"refractory," and is referred to in the records of the coetus 
as "the rebellious Rubel," and three years later the minutes 
cease to mention his name. Of Mr. Wissler the sad fact is 
recorded that he died soon after his arrival, having never 
been installed over a charge. Mention follows a few years 
later of kind provision for his widow by the coetus. 

Our narrative now returns to the name which interests 
the reader most, the only one among the group which 
gained a conspicuous place in history, the name of Philip 
William Otterbein. The city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 
was at that time a thrifty town of about two thousand 
people. Here was located the second in importance among 

43 



44 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

the German Reformed churches in America, — the first 
being in Philadelphia, — and to this church Mr. Otterbein 
was appointed by Mr. Schlatter. From the testimony of 
Mr. Harbaugh, as from other sources, we learn that much 
laxity in morals, as well as in regard to orderly church 
life, prevailed in the congregation at this time. The 
church had been for some years mostly without a pas- 
tor, and had lapsed into unfortunate spiritual conditions. 
" Owing, probably, to the frequent vacancies which had here 
occurred during some years previous," says Mr. Harbaugh, 
" loose ideas and practices had come to prevail ; and various 
irregularities, especially in regard to order and discipline, 
had gradually crept into the church."^ The conditions 
of entering upon the pastorate of this church having been 
agreed upon, one of which provided that his service should 
continue for a period of five years, Mr. Otterbein entered 
upon the duties of the charge in about one month from 
the time of his landing at New York. 

If we now recall the manner of his ministry at Ockers- 
dorf and Herborn, and remember with what zeal and 
earnestness he there rebuked sin in high and in humble 
places, and urged his people to seek for a deeper spirit- 
uality, and lead purer and more exemplary lives, we 
shall understand how he addressed himself to the new 
duties that lay before him. Here w^as indeed a con- 
gregation less spiritual in its inner, and less orderly in 
its outward, life than w^ere the churches to which he had 
previously ministered — churches which had been molded 
under the influence of the devout and saintly men w^ho 
presided over the school at Herborn. And, as it might 
be supposed, the worldly element in the church, here as 
there, chafing under his trenchant rebukes, asserted itself 
in opposition to his spiritual and earnest preaching. But 

1 Fathers of the Reformed Church, Vol. II., by Rev. H. Harbaugh, D.D., p. 54. 



MB. OTTEBBEIN IN AMERICA 45 

Mr. Otterbein was not to be turned aside by opposition. 
As a true ambassador from God, he delivered his message 
with unflinching fidelity, and with excellent results. Many 
in the church soon became strongly attached to the young 
pastor, and when, at the end of the five years, he tendered 
his resignation, intending to make a visit to Germany, the 
congregation was loth to let him go, and insisted upon 
his continuing with them. Upon their earnest pleading, 
and upon the intercession of the coetus, he made an 
engagement to remain, reserving, however, the privilege 
of resigning at any time. We may remember just here 
that the date of Mr. Otterbein's settlement at Lancaster 
was twenty-three years before the beginning of the War 
of the American Revolution, and also that he was then 
just twenty-six years old. 

Mr. Harbaugh, the distinguished historian of the Re- 
formed Church, while never quite able to free himself 
of a degree of prejudice toward the United Brethren, 
though writing as late as 1857, presents some valuable 
materials for United Brethren history. Among these is 
much of what he says of Mr. Otterbein, whom he regards 
as misguided and erring, but for whom he nevertheless 
retains the highest measure of admiration. Of Mr. Otter- 
bein and his ministry at Lancaster he says that he was 
"full of vigor and holy zeal," and that "he labored, during 
these five years, as appears from the records of that 
church, amid various discouragements, though with regular 
success."^ Mr. Harbaugh further says that "at the close 
of the stipulated term, in 1757, he was anxious to with- 
draw," and then continues, quoting from another source : 
"'He complained of many grievances, which had ren- 
dered his ministry unhappy ; and demanded, as a condition 
of his continuance, the exercise of a just ecclesiastical 

^ Fathers of the Reformed Church, Vol. II., p. 54. 



46 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

discipline, the abolition of all inordinacies, and entire liberty 
of conscience in the performance of his pastoral duties. 
All this was readily promised by the congregation.' " 

Apparently, to about this time belongs an important 
paper, the original of which is preserved in the archives 
of this early church. It is in Mr. Otterbein's own hand- 
w^riting, and its provisions indicate how earnestly he 
sought the spiritual improvement of his congregation. 
The document is signed by eighty of the male members 
of the church, thus showing their willingness to cooperate 
with him. The following translation is given in "The 
Fathers of the Reformed Church " : 

Inasmuch as, for some time, matters in our congregation have 
proceeded somewhat irregularly, and since we, in these circum- 
stances, do not correctly know who they are that acknowledge them- 
selves members of our church, especially among those who reside 
out of town ; we, the minister and officers of this church, have 
taken this matter into consideration, and find it necessary to request 
that every one who calls himself a member of our church, and who 
is concerned to lead a Christian life, should come forward and sub- 
scribe his name to the following Rules of Order : 

First of all, it is proper that those who profess themselves mem- 
bers should subject themselves to a becoming Christian church 
discipline, according to the order of Christ and his apostles ; and 
thus to show respectful obedience to ministers and officers, in all 
things that are proper. 

Secondly. To the end that all disorder may be prevented, and 
that each member may become more fully known, each one, with- 
out exception, who desires to receive the Lord's supper, shall, 
previous to the preparation sei-vice, upon a day appointed for that 
purpose, personally appear before the minister, that an interview 
may be held. 

No one will, by this arrangenaent, be deprived of his liberty, or 
be in any way bound oppressively. This we deem necessary to the 
preservation of order ; and it is our desire that God may bless it to 
this end. Whoever is truly concerned to grow in grace, will not 
hesitate to subscribe his name. 

This excellent measure thus adopted became an estab- 
Hshed custom of the Lancaster church, and was regularly 



MR. OTTERBEIN IN AMERICA 47 

maintained for about seventy-five years. Thus before 
each communion season the pastor and the people were 
brought face to face, giving the pastor opportunity to make 
inquiry concerning the spiritual condition of each, and to 
give such counsel or comfort as might be necessary. Mr. 
Harbaugh justly laments that "the good custom" was 
"suffered to sink out of sight," adding that "its abandon- 
ment brought no blessings to the church at Lancaster." 

One m.ore paragraph from Mr. Harbaugh, illustrating 
the high character of Mr. Otterbein's work at Lancaster, 
and the permanent results which followed, is here added : 
"Though the congregation at Lancaster had existed, with 
considerable prosperity, since 1736, it is evident that 
it was the labor, zeal, and influence of Mr. Otterbein 
which, more than those of any previous pastor, gave it 
consolidation, firmness, and character. Previous to his 
time, its history was somewhat fragmentary and weak. 
He was the instrument by which its strength was con- 
centrated and made permanent. Under his ministry, the 
old, small wooden church, which stood in the back part 
of the graveyard, was superseded by a massive stone 
church, at the street, which was built in 1753, and only 
taken down in 1852, having stood almost a century. 
Internally the congregation greatly prospered. Evidences 
of his order and zeal look out upon us, from the records, 
in many ways ; and enterprises started in his time have 
extended their results, in the permanent features of the 
congregation, down to this day."^ 

This noble tribute to Mr. Otterbein well illustrates alike 
his zeal, wisdom, and energetic spirit in caring for the 
spiritual and material interests of his fiock. He was a 
young man at this time, but proved himself a wise mas- 
ter-builder. And it may be added that after nearly a 

1 Fathers of the Reformed Church, Vol. II., pp. 57, 58. 



48 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

century and a half has passed, and forty years after Mr. 
Harbaugh wrote, the Keformed Church still finds Lancaster 
one of the best of its strongholds, having now not only 
a large church membership there, but also one of its 
foremost literary and theological institutions. 

During the pastorate of Mr. Otterbein at Lancaster 
there came a crisis in his religious experience which 
brought about a most marked change in his inner 
spiritual consciousness, and gave tone to all his subse- 
quent career as a minister of the gospel of Christ. It 
was in the early part of his Lancaster ministry when, on 
a certain Sabbath morning, he preached with more than 
his usual earnestness and power, his whole soul and spirit 
being poured into his words as they fell from his lips. 
His theme was the necessity for a thorough repentance 
for sin, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as a full and 
conscious Saviour. Many of his hearers were deeply moved 
by his evident sincerity and the fervency of his utter- 
ance. After the close of the service, one to whose soul 
his words had gone as sharp arrows anxiously approached 
him for spiritual counsel. Mr. Otterbein, though preach- 
ing with such potency the saving truths of the gospel, 
felt himself perplexed and embarrassed by this direct 
proof of its effects, and for the moment he could but 
reply, "My friend, advice is scarce with me to-day." 
The fact was that his earnest sermon, full of truths which 
he had theoretically learned and as yet but partially expe- 
rienced, was but the strong outcrying of his own unsatisfied 
soul, and he went away from his pulpit that day into the 
seclusion of his closet, there to struggle in prayer until 
the problem of a more perfect consciousness of salvation 
in Christ was fully solved. 

That Mr. Otterbein himself regarded this entrance into 
a deeper religious experience as possessing an important 



MR. OTTERBEIN IN AMERICA 49 

significance in his spiritual life, is indicated in his answer 
to one of a series of questions propounded to him not long 
before his death, by Bishop Asbury, of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. The particular question referred to 
was, "By what means were you brought to the gospel of 
God and our Saviour?" Mr. Otterbein's answer was, "By 
degrees was I brought to the knowledge of the truth, while 
I was at Lancaster."^ But it would be a grave mistake to 
regard this answer as signifying that Mr. Otterbein now for 
the first time experienced the saving grace of the gospel. 
When we regard the character of his earlier preaching, 
both in Germany and after coming to America, his earnest 
and devout spirit, the purity of his life, all the trend of 
his ministry in public and in private, we are not per- 
mitted to come to such a conclusion. We are rather to 
understand that his heart longed for a more perfect 
apprehension, a fuller and more satisfying experience, 
of the things which he perceived in the gospel, and which 
he preached to others. This grace he now came to realize 
in a more precious sense, by degrees, perhaps, as he 
modestly expressed it, but none the less consciously. And 
it was his earnest preaching of the necessity for this truer 
spiritual experience and life, and his insistence upon it as 
the duty of every member of the church, that marked all 
his subsequent ministry as so different from that of the 
majority of his earlier associates. 

The importance of this experience of Mr. Otterbein 
during his Lancaster j^astorate, when viewed in the light 
of the results to which it led, can scarcely be correctly 
estimated without taking into account the spiritual com- 
fort and strength which it brought into his own heart 
and life. It became to him practically the beginning of 
a new life. We are to take into account the general con- 

1 Drury's Life of Otterbein, p. 68. 
4 



50 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

ception of the religious world at that time, that religion 
was largely an education. The cardinal doctrines of our 
faith were taught in the catechism ; then followed con- 
firmation and the stated participation in the communion 
of the Lord's supper. Religion pertained largely to the 
province of the intellect and the observance of outward 
forms. And when, in connection with these, the general 
deportment corresponded with the requirements of a pure 
and upright life, the man or woman so professing and 
living was deemed an exemplary Christian. With all 
this, so far as it went, there was certainly no fault to be 
found. But in this spiritual struggle, which Mr. Otterbein 
recalled in his old age in his answer to Bishop Asbury's 
questions, he entered into a brighter light, a deeper expe- 
rience, the consciousness of new and more intimate 
fellowship with the divine. It was the same deeper 
heart regeneration which Mr. Wesley, brought up in the 
stately formalities of the Church of England, experienced, 
which made Whitefield the "burning and shining light" 
that he was, and which has filled the hearts of millions 
of others with a satisfying spiritual consciousness which 
no mere intellectual apprehension or faithful compliance 
with outward forms could ever bring. It was this expe- 
rience which made Mr. Otterbein from that time forward 
in important aspects a new man, and which brought him 
later into those activities and relationships with other 
men of like experience that led to the organization of 
the United Brethren Church. 

Dr. Drury, in remarking upon this stage of Mr. Otter- 
bein's religious life, says : " If there was an earlier 
experience, it was yet clearly this later experience that 
furnishes the key to his after-life. It was this present 
conscious experience that he ever afterward preached as 
the privilege of all Christians. He believed none the less 



MR. OTTEBBEIN IN AMEBIGA 51 

in the outward things of Christianity and the Christian 
church as being important, but he believed with his whole 
soul that outward elements are worthless to those that do 
not inwardly appropriate." Dr. Drury further remarks 
upon the influence of this deeper religious experience 
upon Mr. Otterbein's preaching : " One of the results of 
Mr. Otterbein's enlarged liberty was a modification of his 
manner of preaching. Before this he had used manuscript 
in the pulpit ; but now he had something direct, practical, 
experimental, to urge upon the people, and found manu- 
script unnecessary and calculated to trammel."^ The 
example of this learned and gifted apostle of the gospel 
of Christ is commended especially to the consideration of 
those younger men in the ministry who are laying aside 
the more perfect freedom of extempore address for the 
narrower limitations of full manuscript discourse. 

II. IN TULPEHOCKEN, FREDERICK CITY, AND YORK. 

Toward the close of Mr. Otterbein's sixth year at Lan- 
caster, in 1758, he again pressed his resignation, intending 
to visit his old home in Germany, with a possibility of 
not returning. The resignation was reluctantly accepted, 
and Mr. Otterbein was looking forward to his expected 
journey. But Providence decreed otherwise. Further 
steps were yet to follow that would assure his permanent 
residence in America, and lead up in due time to that 
greater work which the great Head of the church had ap- 
pointed for him. The French and English war was still 
in progress, and ocean travel was perilous, while disturbed 
conditions in continental Europe further rendered the time 
inopportune. He therefore resolved upon a postponement 
of his journey, but not wishing to remain inactive while 
he was waiting, he accepted the temporary oversight of 

1 lAfe of Otterbein, pp. 71, 72, 81. 



52 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

the Tulpehocken charge. This charge was situated in 
what was then famiharly known as the Tulpehocken 
settlement. This settlement extended for a distance of 
something over twenty miles along Tulpehocken Creek, 
a small stream which takes its rise in Lebanon County, in 
the vicinity of Lebanon, and empties into the Schuylkill 
near Reading. The church edifice was a commodious 
wooden building, erected as early as 1745, and capable of 
seating as many as six hundred people.^ Mr. Otterbein's 
labors, however, extended to various other congregations, 
as at Reading and other contiguous places, and even as 
far as Frederick City, Maryland. A number of these 
congregations being most of the time without pastors, he 
visited them to minister to the lost sheep of the house 
of Israel. 

Mr. Otterbein on this charge, as previously at Lancaster, 
addressed himself with much earnestness to the work of 
encouraging a true spirituality among the people. During 
the week he visited diligently the families who attended 
his preaching on the Sabbath, conversed with them per- 
sonally on the subject of their salvation, prayed wdth 
them, and counseled or admonished them as circum- 
stances might indicate. He also instituted week-day even- 
ing prayer-meetings — not a new form of service to him, 
for, as we have seen, he regularly held these meetings in 
connection with his work at Ockersdorf before coming to 
America. But to his parishioners in Tulpehocken the 
prayer-meeting was an innovation to be regarded with 
distrust, if not actually opposed. The venerable Rev. 
H. G. Spayth, the first historian of the United Brethren 
Church, whose life was in part contemporary with that 
of Mr. Otterbein, speaks thus of the manner in which 
Mr. Otterbein conducted these meetings, and of the feelings 

1 See Drury 's Life of Otterbein, pp. 84, 85. 



MB. OTTERBEIN IN AMERICA 53 

and comments of the people : " On these occasions his 
custom was to read a portion of Scripture, make some 
practical remarks on the same, and exhort all present to 
give place to serious reflections. He would then sing 
a sacred hymn, and invite all by kneeling to accompany 
him in prayer. At first, and for some time, but few, if 
any, would kneel, and he was left to pray alone. . . . 
After prayer he would endeavor to gain access to their 
hearts, by addressing them individually, with words of 
tenderness and love."^ 

It was to be expected that such labors, earnestly directed 
with tears and gentle entreaty, would in due time bear 
their legitimate fruit. When these fruits began to appear 
in the seriousness and contrition of some of the members 
of the church, others began to call in question the 
propriety of holding the prayer-meetings. "What," said 
some of them, "the preacher, and men and women kneel, 
and pray, and weep, and call upon God and Jesus 
to have mercy on them ! Who ever heard of such a 
thing ?"^ To us of the present time, as to the church for 
a century past, the prayer-meeting, with its frequent out- 
bursts of deep religious fervor, is so familiar a form of 
service, and so greatly esteemed as a means for building 
up believers in a true and zealous Christian life, that we 
can scarcely conceive of a spiritual condition so apathetic 
and lifeless as that which then prevailed so broadly among 
the professing followers of Christ. But Mr. Otterbein's 
faithful labors among these people were greatly blessed, 
and in due time his earnest labors in the pulpit and 
among the people gained for him their warmest affec- 
tion. It was indeed a most interesting spectacle — this 
young, talented, and cultured minister going about among 
these simple-hearted people with unwearying diligence 

' Spayth's History of the United Brethren Church, pp. 23, 24. ^ Ibid., p. 24. 



54 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

and a high resolve to secure for them their best spiritual 
good, deahng with plain but loving severity with the 
wayward, and with tenderest and gentlest regard for 
all. Mr. Harbaugh, the German Reformed historian, 
speaking of this period, says that great blessing rested 
upon his labors.^ 

The thoroughly evangelical methods of Mr. Otterbein 
at this early stage of his work in America, alike in Lan- 
caster and in Tulpehocken, pointed with prophetic finger 
toward results in which, when they were realized, he 
rejoiced as men rejoice in the harvest, but of which at 
the time he had not the most distant conception. It could 
not be otherwise than that in time these truly spiritual 
methods would arouse opposition among some who were 
his associates in the divine calling, but who did not share 
his deep inward spiritual experience. But let us of the 
present be grateful that Mr. Otterbein, bringing the prayer- 
meeting with him from his home in Germany, thus early 
introduced it among his parishioners in America, and that 
he engrafted it into the institutions of the Church which 
in time he founded. Its value to the Church has been 
above estimate. The successors of the men who then 
disapproved his methods have happily adopted the same 
form of service, and its usefulness is attested by the 
practice of nearly all Christian denominations. 

Rev. John Lawrence, in his History of the United 
Brethren Church,^ in referring to the oppositions encoun- 
tered by Mr. Otterbein and his manner of meeting them, 
says : " We have seen that pastors, preachers, and people, 
not a few, were found who did not relish these meetings 
for prayer, but opposed them as an innovation, and per- 
secuted those who attended them. In answer to these 

1 Fathers of the Reformed Church, Vol. II., p. 58. 
« Published in 1860-61. Vol. I., pp. 148, 149. 



MR. OTTEBBEIN IN AMERICA 55 

opponents, such passages of Holy Scripture as the follow- 
ing were introduced by Mr. Otterbein : ' come, let us 
worship and bow down ; let us kneel before the Lord our 
Maker' (Ps. 95 : 6). 'Even them will I bring to my holy 
mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer : 
... for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for 
all people' (Isa. bQ : 7). 'For this cause I bow my knees 
unto the Father.' 'I will therefore that men pray every- 
where' (Paul). 'Where two or three are gathered together 
in my name' (Jesus). 'Which are the prayers of the 
saints' (Rev. 5:8; 8:3). Nevertheless, this kneeling 
in prayer, and these meetings especially for prayer and 
religious conference, on week days and evenings, met with 
much violent opposition, and from none more decided and 
bitter than from those who, from their sacred and holy 
calling, should have been prepared to give them their 
hearty and undivided support." Mr. Spayth, remarking 
further upon the agency of these prayer-meetings in 
bringing about the reformation in which Mr. Otterbein 
was the principal figure, forcibly says, "This truth is 
most strongly attested by witnesses on earth and saints 
in heaven ; and it remains yet to be proven, whether 
the reformation of the world can be prosecuted with any 
degree of success, or a church, however well established, 
maintain her vitality, continue a light to the world, and 
be instrumental in the conversion of sinners, in the 
absence of these meetings as secondary means of grace." 
In the fall of the year 1760, Mr. Otterbein transferred 
his labors from Tulpehocken to Frederick City, then 
called Fredericktown, Maryland. This was in answer to 
a second call from the congregation in Frederick, a 
previous call having been extended to him in 1759. 
The second call was accepted under the pressure of a 
special urgency by the congregation, the coetus, and the 



56 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

synods in Holland. By reason of more remote location 
the service of temporary supplies could be secured only 
with difficulty, and this fact was pressed to induce Mr. 
Otterbein to accept. The disturbed conditions of the 
country on account of the war not being yet quieted, he 
seems to have postponed to an indefinite time his cherished 
purpose to visit his home in the Fatherland. He was 
not a stranger to the people in Frederick, having visited 
them several times to supply their need while they were 
without a pastor. His pastorate in Frederick extended 
through a period of five years. 

To these people, as elsewhere, ^Ir. Otterbein came as a 
burning and shining light. He preached the plain truths 
of the gospel with great urgency, insisting upon a thorough 
conversion of the heart, a consciousness through the 
Spirit's witness of present salvation, and the testimony 
of a pure and godly life. Many of the people received 
his words gladly, and there is ample evidence that his 
ministry in Frederick was in a high degree successful. 
Nevertheless, there were the worldly and sinful in the 
church, some of them influential, to whom his close require- 
ments proved a most serious ofi'ense, and who, while they 
had joined pressingly with others in inviting him to 
become their pastor, afterward raised a mutiny against him, 
carrying for a time a majority of the congregation with 
them. These men, after the manner of the Pharisees, 
who prided themselves on being the children of Abraham, 
and on a strict observance of the outward forms of the 
law, held that having been baptized, and receiving 
statedly the communion of the Lord's supper, nothing 
further was required to entitle them to the name of 
Christian. The rigorous arraignment of such men, 
trusting in the outward formalities of worship, leading 
unspiritual and even ungodly lives, aroused in them the 



MB. OTTEBBEIN IN AMERICA 67 

spirit of bitter opposition. They were angered under 
his searching sermons, and would not endure the strict 
discipHne which he sought to enforce. Their behavior 
in this was in striking contrast with that of the people 
at Lancaster, who, after having chafed for a time under 
the same type of ministry, afterward gladly assented 
to the things which Mr. Otterbein required as conditions 
of his remaining with them, and finally parted from 
him with deep and affectionate sorrow. 

An incident narrated by Mr. Lawrence illustrates the 
temper of these ungodly members of the church in Fred- 
erick : "At one period the excitement became so great 
that a majority of the church determined on his summary 
dismission ; and, to effect it most speedily, they locked 
the church door against him. On the following Sab- 
bath, when the congregation assembled, his adherents, 
knowing that he had a legal right to the pulpit, were 
disposed to force the door; but he said to them: 'Not so, 
brethren. If I am not permitted to enter the church 
•peaceably, I can and will preach here in the graveyard.' 
So saying, he took his stand upon one of the tombstones, 
proceeded with the regular introductory services in his 
usual fervent spirit, delivered a sermon of remarkable 
power, and, at its close, announced preaching for the same 
place on the succeeding Sabbath. At the time appointed 
an unusually large concourse assembled, and as he was 
about to commence the services again under the canopy 
of the heavens, the person who had the key of the church 
door hastily opened it, saying : '■ Come in, come in ! I 
can stand this no longer.' " ^ Mr. Otterbein doubtless 
remembered at this time how the Saviour forewarned the 
apostles that they should be cast out of the synagogues, 

^ Lawrence's History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Vol. I., pp. 
178, 179. 



58 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

and also that the Lord himself had a like experience in 
his own city of Nazareth, with comforting reflection on 
his words : " The disciple is not above his master, nor the 
servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that 
he be as his master, and the servant as his lord." Dr. 
Drury, remarking on this incident, observes that while 
among the Germans so deplorable a religious condition 
existed, things were not any better among the English, 
and recalls that only ten years before this Jonathan 
Edwards, in New England, was dismissed from his church 
at Northampton, and that John Wesley preached from 
his father's tombstone at Epworth, the door of the church 
being closed against him. 

Among the substantial proofs of the success which 
attended Mr. Otterbein's labors at Frederick, notwith- 
standing these oppositions, may be mentioned the fact 
that during his pastorate the congregation built a new 
house of worship. Of this enterprise Dr. Drury remarks : 
"Mr. Otterbein's labors at Frederick were much blessed. 
In 1763 the congregation began to build a large and 
substantial stone church, to take the place of the former 
log structure, or possibly of a church that had succeeded 
the original log church. The next year the house was 
nearly enough completed to be used for worship. The 
building was subsequently remodeled, and was at a later 
time rebuilt, but the original stone tower, still standing, 
shows that, for those early days, the building was of 
a superior character. In 1762 a stone parsonage was 
erected, the lot having been purchased the preceding 
year."^ 

In the year 1847 the centennial of the founding of this 
congregation was observed, and the Rev. Dr. Daniel 
Zacharias, w^ho was its pastor from 1835 to 1873, preached 

^LAfe of Otterbein, 1884, pp. 100, 101. 



MR. OTTERBEIN IN AMERICA 59 

the centennial sermon. In referring to the building of 
this church and parsonage, and also to the affectionate 
regard which Mr. Otterbein continued to cherish for the 
congregation after he had removed to another field of 
labor, Dr. Zacharias says : " During Mr. Otterbein's labors 
in Frederick, the church in which we now worship was 
built ; also the parsonage which has been the successive 
residence of your pastors ever since. Many other im- 
provements in the external condition of this congregation 
were likewise made during this period ; thus showing that 
Mr. 0. was not only a very pious and devoted pastor, but 
was also most energetic and efficient in promoting the 
outward prosperity of the church. A few letters are still 
preserved in our archives,^ written by Mr. 0. w^hile at 
York, to members of this charge. From these letters, 
brief as they are, you may easily gather the spirit of the 
man. Though laboring now in another field, he remem- 
bered still, with affectionate kindness and concern, the 
people whom he had recently left. He mourned over 
their difficulties, and endeavored to profit them by im- 
parting unto them his godly counsels, and offering up 
in their behalf his earnest prayers." 

During the five years of his pastorate at Frederick Mr. 
Otterbein received pressing calls to go to other places, as 
Reading, Oley, and Philadelphia. The church in the 
latter city was especially urgent in pressing its request. 
Four letters of Mr. Otterbein relating to this call remain 
in the archives of that church. They appear in Dr. 
Drury's Life of Otterbein, all of them written in 1763. 

It was also during his pastorate at Frederick that Mr. 
Otterbein w^as married. His bride, Miss Susan LeRoy, 
was of French Huguenot descent. Her ancestors had 

* These letters, Dr. Drury remarks, can no longer be found. Life of Otterbein, 
p. 101. 



60 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

fled from France to Switzerland on the revocation of the 
edict of Nantes, by Louis XIV., in 1685, when four 
hundred thousand of the best citizens of France sought 
refuge in other countries, and in 1754 her father with 
his family came to America, settling, soon after their 
arrival, in Lancaster, just two years after Mr. Otterbein 
became pastor in that city. The marriage took place on 
the 19th of April, 1762, the Rev. WilHam Stoy officiating. 
Mr. Otterbein was at this time nearly thirty-six years of 
age, and Miss LeEoy twenty-six. The period of Mr. 
Otterbein's married life was of brief duration, Mrs. Otter- 
bein dying on the 27th of April, 1768, just six years 
after the marriage. Mr. Otterbein cherished the memory 
of his young bride with the tenderest affection to the 
end of his long life. Dr. Drury recalls "a beautiful 
tradition that only two days before his death he requested 
a friend to bring a pocket-book, made by the tender 
hands then so long motionless in death, and that gazing 
upon the carefully preserved keepsake, he kissed it with 
all the fondness of a youthful lover." ^ The dates of the 
marriage of Mr. Otterbein and of the death of ]\Irs. 
Otterbein were discovered by Dr. Drury in the venerable 
records of the Lancaster Reformed church. 

Toward the close of his five years' pastorate at Fred- 
erick, Mr. Otterbein accepted a call from the church at 
York, Pennsylvania, and in September, 1765, he removed 
to that place. The church at York had been organized 
at an early day, and had become large and influential. 
His connection with this church continued until 1774, 
when he resigned to assume the pastorate of the newly 
organized independent Reformed church in Baltimore. 

Three events of special interest occurred during his 
residence at York. One of these was the death of his 

^ Life of Otterbein, p. 112. 



MR. OTTERBEIN IN AMERICA 61 

beloved wife, in April, 1768, as has already been seen. 
Her remains were conveyed to Lancaster, the home of 
her people, for interment. A second was his first meeting 
with Martin Boehm, a man whose life work was to be 
thereafter so intimately associated with his own. This 
meeting will be spoken of further on. The third was the 
fulfillment of his long-cherished desire to visit his old 
home in Germany. 

The voyage to Germany was undertaken in April, 
1770. The time for the visit was auspicious. The wars 
in America had been ended, and peace prevailed in 
Europe. Mr. Otterbein expected to return to America, 
and so did not resign his charge at York, his congrega- 
tion being served meanwhile by supplies. His visit 
continued perhaps a little over a year. It was now 
eighteen years since he had left his home in Germany 
to become a missionary to America. Happily, time had 
made no further change in the family circle than the 
wider distribution of some of its members to various 
places of ministerial service. His mother, his brothers, 
and perhaps his sister, were all living. All the brothers 
were honored pastors, except John Charles, who spent his 
entire life as a professor in Herborn, and with whom the 
aged mother resided. The meeting again, after so many 
years of separation, and especially with the beloved mother, 
must have presented tender and affecting scenes, and many 
an interesting story of life in the New World, as related 
by the Americaner, must have enlivened conversation. 

A most interesting incident occurred, illustrating the new 
spiritual life w^hich some of the brothers — history does 
not inform us whether we may say all — had experienced. 
George Godfrey, residing at Duisburg, was probably the 
first of the brothers whom Mr. Otterbein met on his 
arrival in Germany. Of this meeting Dr. Drury says : 



62 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

*' After the first welcome salutation and the evening 
meal, the brothers, in the privacy of the study, un- 
folded to each other their most intimate thoughts. 
Philip William, without reserve, and with a full heart, 
related the story of his spiritual experience. George 
Godfrey listened with the deepest attention, and rising 
from his chair embraced his brother, and as the tears 
streamed down his cheeks said, 'My dear William, we 
are now, blessed be the name of the Lord, not only 
brothers after the flesh, but also after the spirit. I have 
also experienced the same blessing. I can testify that 
God has powxr on earth to forgive sins and to cleanse 
from all unrighteousness.' "^ Dr. Drury also records a 
tradition that on his visiting his oldest brother, John 
Henry, at Burbach, he preached for him on a very hot 
Sunday afternoon for two hours in his shirt sleeves, thus 
proving that he could preach as well without the cus- 
tomary gown as with it, or appear even in the simplest 
habit, and that he did not think two hours too long for 
the delivery of an important message to a congregation^ 
The followers of tliis learned and great divine who begin 
to weary under a sermon as soon as the hand on the dial 
passes the thirty-minute mark should ponder this fact. 

During the period of his residence at York Mr. Otterbein 
continued to make frequent visits to other points to bear 
the gospel to others who hungered for the word, engaging 
in what would now be called missionary or evangelistic 
work. Many of these visits were made to churches unsup- 
plied with pastors ; others to neighborhoods where no 
churches were built. It was on one of these visits that 
he first met his future eminent colaborer, of whom the 
next chapter will treat. 

1 Life of Otterbein, p. 123 ; also Unity Magazine, Vol. III., No. 1. 



CHAPTER III 

OTTERBEIN AND BOEHM 

I. MARTIN BOEHM. 

The name of Martin Boehm, whose memory must ever 
occupy an honored place in United Brethren history, has 
already appeared in these pages. On account of the 
prominence he gained in the great revival movement 
and in the subsequent organization of the Church, as 
well as from the fact that the people among whom he 
was for many years a greatly esteemed minister contrib- 
uted a considerable number to the early adherents of 
the Church, a sketch of his conversion and call to the 
ministry will here be in place. 

We have already seen that among the Protestant 
Germans who, toward the close of the seventeenth century, 
forsook their homes in the old country to escape persecu- 
tion and enjoy the blessings of religious freedom, were 
large numbers of Mennonites.^ The earlier arrivals of 
1683 were followed by steadily increasing numbers until 
in 1735 as many as five hundred families were found in 
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, alone, while many others 
found homes in other counties of that State, as also in 
Maryland and Virginia. 

This larger exodus was stimulated in part by the 
persecutions to which the Mennonites were subjected in 
Europe, alike in Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, on 
the part of other Protestants, on account of their peculiar 
views and practices, which prevailed among some of the 

» p. 34. 63 



64 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

numerous parties into which they were di-vided. Adher- 
ing in the main to the tenets of Menno Simonis, the 
most distinguished leader among them, and whose 
name they adopted, they lived lives of great simplicity, 
especially as regarded dress, the severe plainness which 
still characterizes their descendants in all the branches 
into which they are divided being rigorously insisted 
upon. In religious practice and in their relations to 
the state they sought to observe a simple and severe 
discipline, rejecting a paid clergy, declining to hold civil 
office, and refusing to take oaths or go to war. Infant 
baptism they regarded with decided aversion. In general, 
they sought to reintroduce, according to their concep- 
tion of it, the type of the apostolic church life. In 
America these characteristics are, among the most of these 
people, under their various names, still preserved, the civil 
ballot, that highly prized privilege of citizenship, being 
also declined. In common with the people of other 
churches the early Mennonites in America lapsed into 
religious formalism, laying much stress on outward forms 
and observances, notably giving rigid attention to matters 
of dress, thus substituting a severe externalism for the 
true inward spiritual life, while, however, an exemplary 
morality in the affairs of daily life was carefully insisted 
upon. The exterior life of these simple-hearted people 
could not but commend them to the favorable regard 
of their fellow citizens. It will be noted that in many 
things they bore a marked similarity to the Friends, or 
Quakers, with whom many of them, b}^ their residence in 
William Penn's colony, were brought into close relations. 
But with the almost universal low condition of spirituality 
which prevailed among them, it became an occasion of 
surprise, and sometimes of alarm, and even anger, when 
their members found their way to a better religious life 




Martin Boehm. 



OTTEBBEIN AND BOEHM 65 

and made declaration of the fact. It was among these 
people that Martin Boehm was born. 

The family of Mr. Boehm was of Swiss origin. His 
great-grandfather, Jacob Boehm, was well connected, and 
was a strict member of the Reformed Church. His son, 
also named Jacob, having completed his apprenticeship 
to a trade, was sent forth for the usual three years' service 
as a journeyman. During his absence from home he fell 
in with the Pietists,^ and, approving heartily their religious 
views and warm spiritual life, he attached himself to them. 
On returning home, making known his changed views 
and his new religious experience, he was met with the 
utmost indignation. The pastor of the church publicly 
denounced him, and his family joined in the angry 
opposition to him. He was arraigned and convicted of 
heresy, and upon an older brother was laid the duty 
of conducting him to jail. Possibly the brother's heart 
relented somewhat against the cruel and unnatural pro- 
ceeding. At any rate, he seems to have so far relaxed 
his vigilance that the prisoner found a way to escape. 
The boundary line of France being not far distant, the 
convicted heretic was soon beyond the Swiss jurisdiction, 

1 Pietism, under the vigorous direction of Spener, was a reaction, toward the 
close of the seventeenth century, against the orthodox formalism of the 
Lutheran Church in Germany, which had gradually supplanted the more 
earnest spirituality of the earlier Lutheranism. As important religious move- 
ments are liable to do, it fell into some excesses that brought against it bitter 
opposition, and even persecution. But from the small circle which at first 
met statedly in Spener's study, during his pastorate at Frankfort, it grew grad- 
ually into an irresistible movement, gaining at first a foothold, and afterward 
a real triumph, in Leipzig University, while the University of Halle, then 
newly founded, became the home of the movement. Spener himself was 
advanced in position, becoming court preacher at Dresden, where by his speak- 
ing and writing he pushed forward with the energy of a true revivalist-re- 
former the work which had so deeply enlisted his heart. The movement 
became popular with the masses, and assisted greatly in restoring a better 
spiritual life to Germany, until the rising tide of rationalism began to chill 
and beat back the new spiritual forces. The school of Tubingen, in its earlier 
days, was chiefly based on the principles of Pietism. Consult Schaff-Herzog 
Encyclopcedia, Art. "Pietism." 
5 



66 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

and proceeding along the Rhine he found a home in the 
Palatinate, where he became associated with the Mennon- 
ites. His residence here was made permanent, and here 
he married and reared a family. One of his sons, also 
named Jacob, the third in the line bearing the name, came 
to America in 1715, and found a home, with others of his 
church people who had come before him, in Lancaster 
County, Pennsylvania. Here he was married not long after 
to Miss Kendig, a most worthy young woman, also of the 
Mennonite faith, and of this union was born on November 
30, 1725, Martin Boehm, the youngest of several children. 
Jacob Boehm was a blacksmith by trade, and it is related 
of Mrs. Boehm, as illustrating her sturdy strength, that 
when he was without assistance in his shop, she not 
unfrequently assumed the duties of a helper at the bellows 
and anvil. Jacob Boehm was a devout Mennonite, and, 
like his father before him, was a deacon in his church. 

The opportunities for education in America in the 
early part of the seventeenth century were few, and Mr. 
Boehm's education was accordingly limited, being mostly 
received in the home, in the German language. But he 
possessed, happily, a vigorous mental, as well as phys- 
ical, constitution, a clear grasp of ideas, and sound 
judgment, was gifted with a graceful and easy flow of 
speech, and had a pleasing personal bearing which 
would make him naturally a favorite. Later in life 
he acquired a fair knowledge of the English language, 
with ability to converse with ease, and became possessor 
also of a number of English books. His father being a 
devout Mennonite, and, as we have seen, an officer in the 
church, Mr. Boehm was brought up as a true son of 
the church. Possessing all these qualities, it is not sur- 
prising that when a vacancy occurred in the pulpit 
of the local church of which the Boehms were members. 



OTTEBBEIN AND BOEHM 67 

the thoughts and hearts of the people should have turned 
toward this gifted and pious young man in their own 
midst. The method of choosing a minister among the 
Mennonites was by lot. They remembered the example 
of Joshua in dividing to the people by lot their inherit- 
ance in Canaan, that of Samuel in casting lots in choosing 
the first king of Israel, and that of the eleven apostles 
casting lots to fill the vacancy caused by the defec- 
tion of one of their number, and also the scripture 
which says that "the lot is cast into the lap, but the 
ordering thereof is of the Lord." Accordingly, when, 
after due nominations had been made, and much earnest 
prayer, the lot was cast for a successor in the pulpit 
of this early congregation, we can easily understand that 
the hearts of the people were filled with gladness when 
they saw that the choice fell upon the promising and 
beloved young Martin Boehm. 

Mr. Boehm was at this time in his thirty-third year, 
just a little past the age at which Jesus and John the 
Baptist began their ministry. He had married, in 1753, 
Miss Eve Steiner, who, like himself, was of Swiss ancestry 
and of the Mennonite Church. She is described as a "noble 
woman," and "justly loved and esteemed."^ Dr. Drury 
remarks that the parents of Mr. Boehm "spent their last 
days with him, and from them he inherited the beautiful 
home farm"; also that "the father died in 1780, rejoicing 
in the truths into which the ministry of his son Martin 
was the means of leading him." Of his personal appear- 
ance Dr. Drury says, "He is described as being a short, 
stout man, with a vigorous constitution, an intellectual 
countenance, and a fine flowing beard, which gave him, 
in his later years, a patriarchal appearance." 

Whether Mr. Boehm ever saw Mr. Otterbein previous 

^Drury's Life of Otterbein, p. 130. 



68 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

to his own call to the ministry, and his remarkable spir- 
itual experience which followed, cannot now be known. 
Residing in the same county in which Mr. Otterbein was 
pastor, it is not improbable that he knew of him. But 
as the Mennonites, from their experience with the Reformed 
and Lutherans in the old country, would naturally be 
somewhat shy of them in the new, there is no likelihood 
that Mr. Boelim ever visited Mr. Otterbein's church in 
Lancaster, and it is certain that Mr. Otterbein did not 
form Mr. Boehm's acquaintance until many years after 
the latter became a minister. 

Mr. Boehm's conversion presented an interesting illus- 
tration of the manner in which the Holy Spirit moved 
upon the hearts of men in different churches and in 
different localities, independently of any personal contact 
of those who were thus affected. We have already seen 
that Mr. Otterbein was deeply moved by the divine 
Spirit impressing upon his own heart the precious import 
of the Scripture truths which he preached to others, and 
also that while he was thus affected he felt unprepared 
to give spiritual counsel to one who came to him to 
inquire. We are now to see that Mr. Boehm, when he 
was called to become a minister, felt that he had no 
message for his people until by the power of the same 
Spirit which directed his call he was made a new man 
in Christ. Under these circumstances he found himself 
presently under the greatest embarrassment and mortifica- 
tion. Again and again, according to the custom of his 
church, he arose to add an exhortation, after an older 
minister had preached, and found himself able only to 
stammer out a few incoherent sentences. He read 
diligently the Scriptures, that he might have something 
to say, but when the trial came his memory would not 
call up a single passage, and he was obliged to sit down 



OTTERBEIN AND BOEHM 69 

in confusion. Some months passed in this way, with only 
failure to reward his efforts, and he began to be in 
despair. To be a preacher and have nothing to say he 
felt to be a deep reproach. Yet he did not doubt that 
he was genuinely called to the work of the ministry, 
because the church had laid its hand upon him after the 
divine order as understood by his people. He believed 
also fully in the efficacy of prayer, and he availed himself 
earnestly of this refuge of troubled souls. While he was 
thus engaged, he tells us, the thought presented itself to 
him as though one had audibly spoken, "You pray for 
grace to teach others the way of salvation, and you have 
not prayed for your own salvation." This thought clung 
to him day by day until he felt himself to be a poor, 
lost sinner. His agony, he says, now became very great. 
One day, he continues, when he was plowing in the field, 
he knelt down at each end of the furrow to pray. The 
word lost, lost (verlohren), went with him every round. 
At length, midway in the field he could go no farther ; 
he sank down by his plow, and cried, "Lord, save; I am 
lost ! " Then came to him the answer, " I am come to 
seek and to save that which is lost." His heart took 
hold of these precious words of the mighty Saviour ; and 
"in a moment," he says, "a stream of joy was poured 
over me." Thus as a result of prolonged struggle, and 
in answ^er to unceasing prayer, there came into his heart 
the blessing of an unutterable peace. 

Mr. Boehm, after this blessed experience, at once left 
his plow in the field, and proceeded to his house to tell 
his wife the joyful news. Now he found too that his 
tongue was loosened. With the emancipation of the 
heart came liberty of utterance. The live coal from 
the altar which touched the prophet's lips inspired his 
lips also with a new-found eloquence. And now, while 



70 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

before he had wished the Sabbath far away, he wished it 
were already here. When the day came, and the elder 
brother had preached, he arose and told his experience. 
He felt that he now indeed had a message to deliver. To 
the people it was as novel as to him it was joyful. Many, 
as they listened to his story, were deeply moved, and 
attested their feeling with w^eeping. On the following 
Sabbath, as he was speaking, his soul was aflame with his 
theme, and soon he found himself in the midst of the congre- 
gation, while the people about him were weeping aloud.^ 

To see this plain, simple-hearted young man, w^ho before 
had been so reserved and unable to speak connectedly 
even a half dozen sentences, now suddenly stand forth 
with rich gifts of speech, with scripture ready to support 
every utterance, and with powder to sway the hearts of 
the people in a manner they had never before witnessed, 
occasioned among his listeners the profoundest surprise. 
It was as w^hen the people of Nazareth wondered at the 
gracious words which proceeded out of the mouth of a 
young man of their own city, whom they had known as 
a humble carpenter among them, or when the apostles 
on the day of Pentecost spoke with power of interpreta- 
tion that startled the doctors of the law and astonished 
all their hearers. But w^e will let Mr. Boehm himself 
tell of this in his own simple way, as translated by Mr. 
Spayth : " This caused considerable commotion in our 
church, as well as among the people generally. It was 
all new ; none of us had heard or seen it before. A new 
creation appeared to rise up before me and around me. 
Now scripture before mysterious, and like a dead letter 
to me, was plain of interpretation, 'w^as all spirit, all life 
\_alles Geist und Lehen^ Like a dream, old things had 
passed away, and it seemed as if I had awoke to new life, 

^ Spayth's History, pp. 30, 31. 



OTTEBBEIN AND BOEHM 71 

new thoughts, new faith, new love. I rejoiced and praised 
God with my whole heart. This joy, this faith, this love, 
I wished to communicate to those around me, but when 
speaking thereof, in public or in private, it made different 
impressions on different persons. Some gave a mournful 
look, some sighed and wept, and would say, ' Oh ! Martin, 
are we indeed lost?' 'Yes, man \_deT Mensch~\ is lost! 
Christ will never find us till we know that we are lost.' " 
Mrs. Boehm, he tells us, was the next lost sinner to feel 
that she was saved and to experience the same love and 
joy of assurance. 

Mr. Spayth, who personally knew Mr. Boehm in his 
old age, and greatly admired him for the qualities of his 
character, as well as for his invaluable service in the 
Church, thus continues : " It was a rich treat to hear this 
father in Israel tell of his call to the ministry ; how he 
shrank from it when proposed, and how it resulted in 
his finding Jesus, the lost sinners' friend, and the joy 
he felt when the burden of sin was taken away. Of this 
he loved to speak in his old age, and would recur to it 
with an animation peculiar to himself. To see his eyes 
light up, and his whole countenance assume for the time 
a youthful appearance, in contrast with his snowy locks 
and rich white beard, was a sight a pen dipped in liquid 
light could not describe. . . . 'Now I am,' he would say, 
'a servant and a child of God. When this took place, I 
knew of no one who had felt and enjoyed the sweet 
influence of the love of God in the heart but Nancy Keagy, 
my mother's sister. In our family connection and in her 
immediate neighborhood she was known as a very pious 
woman, and she was pious.' This is the Martin Boehm, 
chosen of God, to whom, second to William Otterbein, the 
rise of the United Brethren Church is justly due."^ 

1 Spayth 's History, pp. 30, 31. 



72 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

From the time of Mr. Boehm's conversion he began to 
preach the necessity of a thorough regeneration of the 
heart. He was hstened to by many with sincere pleasure 
and profit. His declaration of the doctrine of the new 
birth found acceptance with some, and they entered into 
the same experience with him. Others regarded his 
preaching with doubt, and apprehended unfavorable re- 
sults to follow what appeared to them as unwarrantable 
zeal or even fanaticism. Nevertheless, in the following 
year, 1759, he was advanced to the rank of a chief 
pastor, or bishop, as the office of a full pastor among the 
Mennonites was called. 

II. MR. BOEHM IN VIRGINIA. 

Mr. Boehm continued to preach with much fervor, and 
with evident fruits following, the doctrines of a true con- 
version and spiritual life to his own congregation. But 
it was not long until, like Mr. Otterbein, he found occasion 
to make visits elsewhere, and preach to others of his own 
denomination the same precious truths of the gospel. The 
first of these visits of note was made to some Mennonite 
settlements in what was then called New Virginia. From 
1750 onward there was a considerable emigration from 
Pennsylvania across Maryland into the inviting valley of 
the Shenandoah River. Among these people were numer- 
ous Mennonite families, and among them some of Mr. 
Boehm's relatives. About the year 1761 much religious 
interest was awakened among these pioneer settlers, the 
particular occasion being the advent among them of some 
of George Whitefi eld's converts, who preached the doc- 
trine of a conscious present salvation. The Mennonites 
in the valley were not yet organized into congregations, 
and were without preaching by ministers of their own 
church. Some of them became seriously affected by the 



OTTEBBEIN AND BOEHM 73 

new teaching which they heard, and were greatly per- 
plexed about what they should do. In this condition of 
affairs they resolved to send to Pennsylvania for some 
minister of their own people, who should give them the 
counsel they needed. Their request was brought to Lan- 
caster County, and to Mr. Boehm's church. On the advice 
of his brethren, Mr. Boehm responded to their call. Noth- 
ing could have been more opportune. He was the mes- 
senger whom God had especially fitted to carry instruction 
to a people whose hearts were ready to receive it. The 
Ethiopian treasurer inviting Philip to join him in his 
chariot and expound to him the Scriptures, the centurion 
of Csesarea sending to Joppa for Peter, and these people 
in the new settlements of the Shenandoah sending for 
Boehm present parallel instances of the Holy Spirit's 
touching the heart for the reception of truth and then 
sending the chosen man to declare it. The results of Mr. 
Boehm's visit to these people were most profitable, and 
no less so to himself in the added impulse that w^as given 
him to follow out new lines of evangelistic work among 
the people of his denomination, such as Mr. Otterbein 
was following among his. 

To present a glimpse of the character and spirit of 
Mr. Boehm's work in this region a page or two from 
the account of Mr. Spayth, who heard from his own lips 
the story of much of his work, is here transcribed. 
Frequently persons were found who were in the deepest 
spiritual distress, but unable to find any one who could 
intelligently assist them in their gropings for the light. 
Among these was a daughter of a Mr. Keller, a Mennonite, 
who heard one of the "new lights," as they were called, 
preach. She was brought under deep conviction for 
sin, and her parents, kind and sympathetic, but knowing 
nothing beyond the outer formalities of religion, were not 



74 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

able to assist her. "Oh, my heart, my heart is sick," she 
exclaimed ; " God is displeased with me. my father, 
what shall I do ? I am lost ! Oh, is there no mercy for 
me?" The best reply she received was: "You are not lost. 
God loves you. 'Mercy/' What do you mean by mercy? 
You are not wicked — never were. You are a believer. 
Come, now; no more crying. Why? wherefore do you 
weep ? " These words were repeated to her often, but there 
was no one to pray with her, or point her to the Saviour. 

''At this crisis," says Mr. Spayth, ''Boehm arrived. After 
salutations had passed and refreshments had been taken, 
Boehm, in conversation with Keller, inquired how matters 
stood in religion. Keller replied, ' Most of us ' are doing 
well, but some new doctrine has of late been preached 
by men hereabout which has caused some disturbance 
among us." 

" ' And what do those men preach ? ' " inquired Mr. 
Boehm. 

" ' What they preach is rather more than I can tell you, 
but it is different from what we have ever heard. Our 
daughter, about two months since, was to their meeting, 
and has not been like, herself since.' 

" ' And for two months she has been to no preaching ? ' " 
asked Mr. Boehm. 

" ' No ; we could not think of letting her go, and have 
wished she had never heard those people. And, as we have 
written you, there are others of our people just like her, 
melancholy and dejected, and all we can get them to say 
is, "We are lost [_verlohren~\ ; we have no true religion"; 
and for this reason we have sent for you, believing that 
they would be advised by our own preachers, and dismiss 
their gloomy thoughts.' 

" 'And where is that daughter of yours ? ' " again inquired 
Mr. Boehm. 



OTTERBEIN AND BOEHM 75 

"'Why/ answered the mother, 'there you see she is, and 
has not spoken a word to any of us to-day.' 

"Boehm said he now moved his chair by her side, and 
sought to draw from herself the state and exercises of 
her mind. She hstened to him for some time in silence, 
breathing at intervals a deep sigh. Soon the fountain 
of her tears was opened again, and she began to weep 
aloud, saying, 'Is it possible that you a stranger know 
what I have felt and suffered for weeks, and you believe 
that I am a sinner, that I am lost ? ' 

"'Yes, I know this, my daughter; but I know Jesus 
came to seek and to save that which is lost ; and he is 
come to find you and to save you to-night yet. Do you 
believe in Jesus ? ' 

" ' Yes, I believe there is Jesus Christ ; but have I not 
offended him ? Will he not come and judge the world 
and me ? Oh, that he would but save me ! ' 

" ' Come,' said Boehm, ' we will kneel down and pray.' 
They kneeled down. The agony of Miss Keller was great. 
She cried, ' Lord, save or I perish ! ' 

"'Yes,' said Boehm, 'hold to that; he will save, and 
that speedily.' And so it was. She was blest, and all 
her sorrow was gone — dissolved in joy. 

" Seeing this, her mother cried out, ' Martin, Martin ! 
what have you done ? Why did you come ? What will 
become of us now ? ' 

"'Yes,' replied her husband, 'what will become of us? 
We, too, are lost ! ' 

"That night," continues Mr. Spayth, "was a night of 
mourning and a night of joy for that house, for the 
morning light found them all rejoicing in the love of 
God." 

The further results of this visit of Mr. Boehm were the 
spiritual enlightenment and happy conversion of many 



76 THE VNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

more of the people in whose interest he had come. The 
fact of the conversion of this family, with the story that 
Mr. Boehm was preaching a doctrine w^hich they as Men- 
nonites had not before received, was soon told among the 
people of his name. A wonderful awakening followed, 
with precious and enduring fruits. But to Mr. Boehm 
himself the visit proved of the greatest practical conse- 
quence. It was to him a deepening and broadening of 
experience. His own conviction of the truths he was 
preaching was greatly intensified, and he felt himself 
strengthened as he had not been before for the declara- 
tion of the doctrine of a conscious new birth. But we 
will let Mr. Spayth tell us further : 

"As before remarked, this coming of his [Mr. Boehm] 
at this time was of great importance to himself. It was 
learning a lesson of experience from the great Master, 
which he could not so soon, nor so effectually, have learned 
at home. Hence we can well fancy with what feelings, 
with what inspired thoughts and hopes, he returned to his 
own. Timidity and the fear of offending his elder brethren, 
he said, were much removed. He was confirmed in the 
truth and correctness of his own experience. He became 
satisfied that men everywhere must repent, and that this 
repentance must be accompanied by a godly sorrow, 
deeply felt ; and that there can be no rest, no peace, no 
hope, and no faith w^ithout it. He further remarked, 
with much earnestness, that after his return he felt 'an 
impression or a presentiment that God would visit his 
people and give them repentance unto life.' He had news 
to tell his friends at home of what he had witnessed in 
Virginia ; that there, too, he found and saw persons, some 
young and some advanced in life, who felt themselves 
lost, some of whom had nearly despaired of obtaining 
grace and mercy, believing themselves the chief of sinners ; 



OTTEBBEIN AND BOEHM 17 

that many had been blest, and rejoiced in Jesus Christ 
their Saviour before he left. He could tell them how 
affecting their parting was — what sympathy, what broth- 
erly love, what melting of hearts ! He never had witnessed 
such scenes in his life before, the simple relation of which 
carried conviction to some at the time of his return 
home. This year, as well as the two years following, 
were years of joy to Brother Boehm. . . . God was with 
him, and he did not preach without effect. . . . Pungent 
convictions extorted the cry, 'Lost,' which were followed 
by happy conversions." 

Mr. Boehm found himself impelled, like Mr. Otterbein, 
to extend habitually his labors to other fields beyond the 
limits of his own neighborhood and congregation. He 
visited other churches of his own people, preaching to 
them the same doctrines relating to repentance, the for- 
giveness of sin, and a conscious present salvation, as he 
preached to the people of his own charge, and as he had 
preached on his visit to Virginia. And similar results 
everywhere followed. Men and women were brought 
under deep conviction for sin, and earnestly sought 
pardon and salvation through Jesus Christ. And every- 
where the people expressed their astonishment at his 
preaching, and at the manifest tokens of God's power 
among them through the Holy Spirit. All was a new 
revelation, alike to people in the church and out of it, 
and numbers found the salvation he declared. And all 
this could not come to pass without also in time arousing 
opposition on the part of the unspiritual and worldly in 
the church, as will be more fully seen farther on. Many 
of those who were thus converted under Mr. Boehm's 
preaching were of the number who were afterward 
gathered into the United Brethren Church, after an 
organization had been effected. 



78 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

III. MEETING OF OTTERBEIN AND BOEHM. 

It is now time that we see the first meeting of these 
two eminent evangelists, Otterbein and Boehm. It is from 
fourteen to sixteen years since, in 1752, Mr. Otterbein 
came to America, and became pastor of the Reformed 
church in the city of Lancaster. And it is from eight 
to ten years since Mr. Boehm, in 1758, w^as chosen to be 
minister in the Mennonite church in his own neighborhood 
in Lancaster County. We have seen that each of them, 
after a special baptism of the Holy Spirit, began to preach, 
with greatly increased definiteness and enlarged power, 
the Scripture truths relating to a conscious salvation in 
Christ ; and also that, with the new spiritual fervor that 
burned in their ow^n hearts, they felt themselves impelled 
to go beyond the limits of their own parish boundaries 
that they might proclaim a clearer light and a precious 
present salvation to others of their brethren. Each, how- 
ever, was content to limit his labors chiefly to the people 
of his own church, and such as were allied to them, or 
might come voluntarily wdthin the sphere of their in- 
fluence. Mr. Otterbein was now pastor of the Reformed 
church at York, Pennsylvania, and Mr. Boehm continued 
as pastor, or bishop, in the nomenclature of his denomina- 
tion, of the Mennonite society to whose service he was 
first chosen, in Lancaster County. 

Mr. Boehm, like Mr. Otterbein, exhibited much activity 
in this wider preaching of the word, and the meeting at 
which the two met was held by his appointment. The 
date was Whitsuntide in 1766, 1767, or 1768. The year 
cannot now be fully determined. Dr. Drury, in his Life 
of Otterbein, after considering the question somewhat 
exhaustively, places the limit of time as not earlier than 
1766, nor later than 1768, with a preference for the later 
date. The place of meeting was the farm of Mr. Isaac 



OTTEBBEIN AND BOEHM 79 

Long,^ in a Mennonite neighborhood, in Lancaster County, 
and the building in which the principal meeting was 
held was Mr. Long's barn, a large structure, capable of 
accommodating a numerous congregation. The people 
assembled in great numbers, from Lancaster, York, and 
Lebanon counties, too many for all to find room in the 
barn, and an overflow meeting was held in the orchard. 
At this meeting were present several ministers, among them 
the ''Virginia preachers," as they were called, lay preachers, 
who came from the settlement in Virginia which Mr. 
Boehm had previously visited. One of these addressed 
the overflow meeting in the orchard. Mr. Otterbein came 
from York for the purpose of attending the meeting, but 
whether by invitation of Mr. Boehm, or wholly of his 
own accord, is not now known. The meeting was called 
eine grosse Versammlungy "a great meeting," a name com- 
monly applied to like assemblages then and down to 
much later days. The term "big meeting," for a pro- 
tracted or revival meeting, is still familiar in some parts 
of the country. 

At this meeting Mr. Boehm preached, while Mr. Otter- 
bein sat beside him a deeply interested listener. As 
Mr. Boehm proceeded with his discourse, his heart glowing 
with spiritual fervor, Mr. Otterbein's soul kindled with 
responsive feeling. The great burning truths which Mr. 
Boehm proclaimed were the same which he had himself 
long been accustomed to declare, and he felt that there 
indeed stood before him a fellow apostle of the same gospel 
which was mighty to save, a true brother in the ministry 
of Christ's word. "When Mr. Boehm ceased, and before 

'^ According to Rev. M. J. Mumma, in the Watchword of February 1, 1896, 
there were three brothers named Long, — Isaac, John, and Benjamin, — all 
of them men of excellent character, and members of the Mennonite Church. 
Some of their descendants still reside in the same neighborhood and adhere 
to the faith of their ancestors, being esteemed as most worthy people in 
their church. 



80 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

he had time to sit down, Mr. Otterbein arose, and with 
a heart filled to overflowing, cast his arms about Mr. 
Boehm in warm embrace, and exclaimed, "TFir sind 
Bruder^^ — "We are brethren." The incident was a most 
remarkable one, truly dramatic and impressive, and 
presenting contrasts of striking character. In personal 
appearance and bearing there was the greatest unlikeness. 
Mr. Boehm, as we have already seen, was of rather short 
stature, plain and simple, though pleasing and effective, 
in speech, and attired in the severely plain garments 
peculiar to his people. Mr. Otterbein, on the other hand, 
was tall, of noble and commanding presence, and bearing 
the marks of elegant culture. But with these differences 
of birth and education, they were under the higher 
dominion of the one divine Spirit, and their thoughts 
and hearts flowed together as one. Much historical 
significance has been attached to this incident, as it is 
thought to have suggested the name of the Church when, 
years later, it was brought to actual organization. 

The participants in this meeting were Mennonites, 
Reformed, Lutherans, and others, all moved by the same 
Holy Spirit, which had brought them a new birth in 
Christ Jesus. The early traditions indeed have it that 
something more was done in the w^ay of promoting union 
than simply joining together in a feast of spiritual fel- 
lowship in Christ, though this was a most blessed end 
gained in a period when church lines were most sharply 
drawn, and when, especially between Mennonites and 
Reformed, there was but little recognition of even the 
outward amenities which distinguish people of different 
churches at the present time. Dr. Drury, in speaking of 
this meeting, says, "The feature deserving of the most 
abiding remembrance in connection with this meeting is 
that Otterbein, Boehm, and the Virginia preachers present 



OTTERBEIN AND BOEHM 81 

are said to have formed a union, with some simple but 
definite conditions as its basis." ^ One of these conditions 
was liberty in the practice of baptism. It will be remem- 
bered that the Reformed Church practiced infant baptism, 
the mode in all cases being sprinkling, while the Men- 
nonites baptized only adults, the mode being by pouring. 
The "Virginia preachers," if they were the followers of 
Whitefield's converts, Whitefield being of the Church of 
England, may have held to infant baptism, and to sprink- 
ling as the preferred mode. The services at these meetings, 
it should be remembered, were conducted exclusively in 
the German language.^ 

1 Life of Otterbein, p. 139. 

2 The barn in which this memorable meeting was held is described by Dr. 
Drury, in his Life of Otterbein, as built of stone, one hundred and eight feet 
long, and of corresponding width, and contained on the floor above the base- 
ment six apartments, some for storage purposes only, others for thrashing. The 
barn is still standing, as is also the original residence, located in the rear of the 
later building seen in our engraving. Rev. M. J. Mumma, who visited the place 
recently, writes that from a date on the barn it is thought to have been built 
in 17.54. The masonry is of a high order. The thatched roof of early times 
has given way long since to a better covering. The building appearing in the 
foreground is a later structure. The location is a beautiful farm., six miles 
northeast of the city of Lancaster. 



Second Period— 1774-1 soo 

CHAPTER IV 

MR. OTTERBEIN CALLED TO BALTIMORE 
I. A NEW ERA IN MR. OTTERBEIN's LIFE. 

We have seen in the preceding pages how the Lord 
prepared two men with special endowments of grace for a 
broader work than that to which their ordinary calling led 
them. Both these men, for some years unacquainted with 
each other, were, through the strong impulse of the divine 
Spirit, led forth to proclaim to others besides the people of 
their own congregations, in more definite terms, the doctrine 
of the new birth and a deeper spiritual experience. This 
true evangelistic work was followed with much gracious fruit. 
Many who heard them listened at first with surprise, then 
with gladness, to this new evangel. But we are now to trace 
again more definitely the course of the more eminent of the 
two distinguished leaders of the movement, Mr. Otterbein. 

The year 1774 marked an era of the greatest impor- 
tance in the work of Mr. Otterbein. He was now to enter 
upon the pastorate of an independent congregation, in the 
city of Baltimore, to remain in its service during the rest 
of his life, a period extending through about thirty-nine 
and a half years. The position assumed by this church 
at its organization, and permanently maintained after- 
ward, and the relation it subsequently sustained to the 
movement which culminated in the formation of the 
Church of the United Brethren in Christ, justify here a 
somewhat detailed statement of its history. 

82 



MR. OTTEBBEIN CALLED TO BALTIMORE 83 

II. THE REFORMED CHURCH IN BALTIMORE. 

The first German Reformed church in Baltimore was 
organized about the year 1750, but a regular pastor was 
not secured until in 1760. This period of ten years 
was coincident with that of Mr. Otterbein's service in 
Lancaster and Tulpehocken, and during this time he 
made occasional visits to this church to supply in part 
its necessities. His earnest and spiritual preaching to its 
people was the sowing of seed which was to bear valuable 
fruit afterward. A goodly number of the members accepted 
gladly the gospel of a true spiritual life, and these came 
to be known as an evangelical party in the church. This 
number was materially increased by the removal into the 
city of persons who had been converted under Mr. Otter- 
bein's preaching at other places. About the year 1770 
the congregation became involved in serious difficulty on 
account of their pastor, Rev. John Christopher Faber. 
Mr. Faber was the first pastor of this church, having 
served it since 1760. It is said of him that his minis- 
trations were formal and languid, and, what was much 
more serious, that he "led an offensive life." He did not 
during this time, nor until 1774, hold connection with 
the Reformed synod, having, on his arrival from Ger- 
many, taken charge of the congregation in an irregular 
manner. The converted portion of the congregation 
listened to his preaching and accepted from his hands 
the sacraments of the church with little pleasure. The 
time came at last when they earnestly sought for a change 
of pastors. But, being in a minority, their wishes were 
disregarded by the larger number, who, on the principle 
of "like people, like priest," determinedly adhered to the 
incumbent pastor. 

In some manner now not quite apparent. Rev. Benedict 
Schwope, a Reformed minister preaching near Baltimore, 



84 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

became involved in the strife. Mr. Schwope first appears 
as an elder in the Eeformed church at Pipe Creek, 
Maryland, 1763, and as early as 1754 his name is found 
on the church list at York. In 1770 he was an applicant 
for ordination before the coetus. Mr. Faber laid against 
him the charge of fomenting the trouble in his congrega- 
tion. The issue, according to Mr. Harbaugh, was laid 
before the coetus. A committee of investigation w^as 
appointed, who, after careful inquiry, failed to sustain Mr. 
Faber, but did sustain Mr. Schwope. The latter was 
then received into membership in the coetus and regularly 
ordained.^ A statement of these facts concerning Mr. 
Schwope is important here, since he appears in the 
following 3^ear as the leader and first pastor of that part 
of the congregation whicli became afterward for so many 
years Mr. Otterbein's church. He was also chiefly in- 
strumental, in connection wdth Francis Asbury, afterward 
Bishop iVsbury, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in 
inducing Mr. Otterbein to accept the pastorate of this 
church. 

III. A NEW CONGREGATION ORGANIZED. 

The crisis came in 1771. The failure to secure a change 
in the pastorate led to the withdrawal of the evangelical 
party from the Reformed church. Having settled upon 
the course they would pursue, they called Mr. Schwope 
to become their pastor, and soon afterward purchased 
several lots for the purpose of building a church. The 
ground secured is situated on Conway Street, Howard's 
Hill, and is that upon which the old historic brick church 
still stands, erected during Mr. Otterbein's pastorate, in 
1786. A frame house sufficient for the immediate needs 
of the congregation was built soon after the purchase of 

» Fathers of the Reformed Church, Vol. II., p. 390. 



MB, OTTERBEIN CALLED TO BALTIMORE 85 

the ground, to be succeeded later by the more substantial 
edifice. The title to this ground was not vested in the 
German Keformed Church, or trustees representing the 
church, but in chosen members of the congregation, with 
power of transmission to their successors. The form of 
this trust was, toward the middle of the present century, 
challenged in a tedious contest in the civil courts, but after 
thorough and exhaustive inquiry, was fully and finally 
confirmed. The clear and definite purpose of this form 
of investiture was that of maintaining the independence 
of the congregation and the freedom of its property from 
the ownership or control of the German Reformed Church. 
The coetus of the Reformed Church made earnest and 
praiseworthy, but unsuccessful, efforts to bring about a 
reconciliation between the now divided sections of the 
original body. In the year 1771, according to an official 
paper in the archives of the Otterbein Church, at a session 
of the coetus at Reading, Pennsylvania, deputies of both 
parties were present, and with the consent of the coetus 
agreed upon the dismissal of Mr. Faber, which was 
accordingly done, and also to call unitedly a preacher 
from the coetus. The call was extended to Mr. Bluhmer, 
but declined, and the coetus decided to send to the church 
a minister who was expected to arrive soon from the Synod 
of Holland. The majority, or old church section, however, 
did not wait for the coming of the expected minister, 
but hastily chose a Mr. \V. Wallauer, who had meanwhile 
arrived, though unsent, from Holland. Mr. Wallauer 
proved even less acceptable than Mr. Faber, and so the 
trouble was in no degree mollified. The version thus 
given is that of the official record in the Otterbein Church, 
and is presumably Mr. Otterbein's understanding of the 
matter. It is due to say that another version, differing 
from this somewhat, represents that Mr. Faber and Mr. 



86 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Schwope were both to resign, and that Mr. Schwope's 
people declined to permit him. In 1772 no progress was 
made toward reunion. In 1773 Mr. Schwope desired to 
resign, and a call was extended to Mr. Otterbein, which 
he declined. The request continued to be pressed, and 
Mr. Otterbein finally consented upon the condition of the 
approval of the coetus. This body, at its session of 1773, 
did not favor his acceptance, and the delegates of both 
parties then agreed to call Dr. Hendel ; or, if Dr. Hendel 
should decline, the two parties were to unite in selecting 
another minister from the coetus. The old church refused 
to ratify this agreement, and the effort to secure harmony 
was again a failure. 

IV. MR. OTTERBEIN ACCEPTS THE PASTORATE. 

In the spring of 1774 Mr. Otterbein was again urged 
to accept the pastorate of the new congregation. This 
time, after due consideration, he consented, notwithstand- 
ing the action of the coetus the year before. The coetus, 
feeling that its action had not been fully regarded, ex- 
pressed, at the fall session of the same year, a mild 
disapproval.^ The request of the congregation was this 
time supported by a personal letter to Mr. Otterbein by 
Francis Asbury, who had arrived in America in 1771, 
and now resided in Baltimore. Mr. Asbury had not yet 
met Mr. Otterbein, but had heard from Mr. Schwope an 
account of his evangelical work. Their life-long friend- 
ship was begun at this time. This letter was dated 
February 2, 1774. A minute referring to this appears in 
Mr. Asbury's Journal, as follows : " On Saturday Mr. 
S. came to consult me in respect to Mr. O.'s coming 
to town. We agreed to promote his settling here, and 

1 For a full presentation of this part of the history the reader is referred to 
Drury's Life of Otterbein, p. 155 m 



MR. OTTERBEIN CALLED TO BALTIMORE 87 

laid a plan nearly similar to ours — to wit, that gifted per- 
sons amongst them who may, at any time, be moved by 
the Holy Ghost to speak for God, should be encouraged, 
and that if the synod would not agree, they were still to 
persevere in the line of duty." The principle involved 
had already been in practice by Mr. Schwope himself 
— that of unordained men appearing in the pulpit as 
preachers of the word. Mr. Asbury at this time, and for 
a number of years afterward, remained unordained, and 
regarded himself as a lay preacher. To this unordained 
class for a series of years belonged most of the preachers 
of the Methodist Episcopal and United Brethren churches 
alike. Mr. Otterbein, however, was not lacking in this 
respect, having been duly ordained, as we have already 
seen, three years before coming to America, by the laying 
on of hands, according to the authorized forms of the 
German Reformed Church. 



CHAPTER y 

THE OTTERBEIN CHURCH IN BALTBIORE 

I. THE OTTEEBEIX CHURCH FORMALLY ORGANIZED. 

Mr. Otterbein took charge of the congregation in Bal- 
timore on May 4, 1774. He had now been in America 
twenty-two years, and was nearly forty-eight years of age. 
He was in the full vigor of his mature manhood, and 
brought his sj)lendid powers to the service of this church 
in a time of suffering and trouble. The growth of the 
church was not rapid, and the War of the Revolution 
breaking out soon afterward, there were many barriers to 
its more speedy enlargement. The German population 
of the city was at that time small, the entire number of 
the inhabitants, of all nationalities, being not over six 
thousand. During the long and wearisome period of the 
war but few German immigrants came to America, and 
those who came mostly sought homes in the country dis- 
tricts. After the close of the war more faA^orable conditions 
gradually set in, and in the year 1785 the congregation, 
now somewhat increased in numbers, effected a full and 
formal organization, and adopted a series of rules for its 
own government. These rules, which, after so long a 
lapse of time, have acquired much historic interest, are 
dated January 1, 1785, and are officially signed by Mr. 
Otterbein, as pastor of the church, and by the elders and 
trustees. The rules are preceded by a historical statement 
which possesses a permanent interest, and is therefore 
here presented with them. As the rules were drawn up 
by Mr. Otterbein, it is fair to assume that the preamble was 





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THE OTTER BEIN CHURCH IN BALTIMORE 89 

also from his hand. Its historical accuracy, though some 
of its points have been disputed, we therefore rest with 
Mr. Otterbein, preferring to take his affirmation rather 
than that of any on the opposite side of the controversy 
of that time. The translation from the original document 
in the German language was made by Rev. H. G. Spayth. 
The paragraph "Article 14" is the transcript of a minute 
in the proceedings of the coetus of 1775, at Lebanon, 
Pennsylvania, where Mr. Bucher, the secretary, was then 
pastor.^ 

THE CHURCH BOOK OF THE EVANGELICAL 
REFORMED CHURCH. ^ 

HOWARD'S Hllili, BALTIMORE. 

In the Name of the Triune Ood: Amen. 

In the year 1771 there stood in the Reformed church in Baltimore 
a preacher by the name of Faber ; but forasmuch as said Faber was 
not in fellowship with the Reformed preachers in Pennsylvania, 
that is, he was not a member of the coetus of Pennsylvania, 
and likewise led an offensive life, a division took place in this 
church. In the month of October of the said year, the said 
Reformed preachers met in Reading, Pennsylvania, where depu- 
ties from both parties of this divided church attended. Here it 
was resolved to dismiss said Faber, which was done. ^ Both 
parties agreed now, unitedly, to call a preacher from the coetus, 
and to offer this call to Mr. Bluhmer. This was done, but the 
call was not accepted by him. The coetus now resolved to send 
to the Baltimore church a preacher from among the four who, 
at that time, according to letters from Holland, were on their 

iRev. John Conrad Bucher was a pastor greatly beloved by his people. 
He died suddenly, at an advanced age, at a wedding at Annville, five miles 
from Lebanon, his body being borne on a bier carried on the shoulders of 
some of his parishioners, at the head of a sorrowing procession, to his home 
in Lebanon. On his tombstone at Lebanon his name appears simply as 
Conrad Bucher, the same as in our minute, being abbreviated as Mr. Otterbein 
commonly did his name to "William," omitting "Philip." See Fathers of the 
Reformed Church, Harbaugh, Vol. II., p. 115. 

2 The name "Evangelical Reformed Church" was the title taken by the 
congregation. 

3 This has reference to the pastoral charge of the congregation, and not 
the coetus. Of the latter he did not become a member until 1774, and so could 
not have been dismissed from that body at the earlier date. See Fathers of 
the Reformed Church, Vol. II., p. 400. 



90 THE VNITED BBETHREK IN CHRIST 

way, and now daily expected. In the meantime there came to 
Pennsylvania W. Wallauer, whom the Synod of Holland had not 
sent. The opposite party, without saying a word to the other partj^ 
contrary to the agreement and the resolve of the coetus, brought 
him away, and received him as their preacher. But at the next 
coetus, which was held in the year 1772, deputies from both parties 
attended ; and the coetus protested against "Wallauer ^ and the 
conduct of his party, and declared that they could take no further 
notice of them. Scarcely any hope being now left of a reunion, 
the remaining members of this church found themselves under the 
necessity of looking about for another preacher, and of forming 
a church for themselves. A call was made to William Otterbein, 
w^ho then stood in the Reformed church in York; but he refused 
because of the disorganized condition of the congregation ; but, after 
repeated solicitations, he expressed a willingness to accept, provided 
the coetus should give consent. At the next coetus, deputies from 
both parties appeared again, and, before a final action was taken 
in the matter with Otterbein, a union took place, and William 
Hendel was proposed as preacher, to which the deputies of both 
parties consented. But, a few da^^s after the return home of the 
deputies, the opposite party rejected the proposition, and all to 
which their deputies had pledged themselves. The division was 
now greater than at any former period. The prospect of a reunion 
entirely vanished, and the members of this church, who had before 
addressed William Otterbein, saw the absolute necessity of forming 
a church for themselves, and they gave Otterbein a new call, which 
he finally accepted; and subsequently, in the year 1775, it was, hy 
the coetus held in Lebanon, confirmed. 

Article 14: After due consideration, the coetus deems it proper 
[good] that Domine Otterbein continue in his pastoral office. 
From report it appears that his labors are blest, and the opposing 
party cease the strife. 

Conrad Bucher, Sec. pro tern. 

^Mr. Harbaugh speaks of Mr. Wallauer as coming to America in 1771, 
"without any recommendations from the Fathers," that is, from the Synod 
of Holland, "in consequence of which coetus did not receive him." He 
says that he succeeded Mr. Faber in Baltimore, in 1772, and according to a 
letter from the coetus to Holland, dated JNIay 2, 1776, he had then left Baltimore; 
and, further, that, according to other testimony, he had left his congregation 
to join the British army. All of this harmonizes with the record in the 
"Church Book" of the Otterbein congregation, and statements from other 
sources as to his unfitness for the pastorate. It is worthy of remark that the 
account given by Mr. Harbaugh of both these men, Mr. Faber and Mr. Wallauer, 
is in no sense flattering and in no way out of agreement with what is said 
in the "Church Book." The memoir of Mr. Faber is dismissed with five brief 
lines. See Fathers of the Reformed Church, pp. 399, 400. 



THE OTTEBBEIN CHUBCH IN BALTIMORE 91 

CHURCH BOOK. 

William Otterbein came to Baltimore May 4, 1774, and com- 
menced his ministerial work. Without delay, and by the help of 
God, he began to organize a church, and, as far as it was possible 
for him, to bring it within the letter and the spirit of the gospel. 
Such disciplinary church rules as were needful, were therefore from 
time to time adopted, made known, and the importance of keeping 
them earnestly enjoined. 

But the afflicting and long-continued war, and the dispersion, 
on account of the same, of many of its members into the interior 
of the country, prevented those rules from being written in a book 
for their preservation. 

But through and by the goodness of God, peace and quietness 
being restored, and the gathering together of former members, 
with a considerable addition of new members, the church finds 
herself at this time considerably increased. Therefore, it is unani- 
mously concluded and ordained by the whole church, to bring 
the constitution and ordinances of this church into the following 
form, which we hold as agreeing with the Word of God; and for 
their permanency and perpetual observance, herewith record and 
preserve : 

1. By the undersigned preacher and members who now consti- 
tute this church, it is hereby ordained and resolved, that this church, 
which has been brought together in Baltimore by the ministration 
of our present preacher, W. Otterbein, in the future consist of a 
preacher, three elders, and three trustees, an almoner, and church 
members; and these together shall pass under and by the name, 
"The Evangelical Reformed Church." 

2. No one, whoever he may be, can be preacher or member of 
this church whose w^alk is unchristian and offensive, or who lives 
in some open sin. (I. Tim. 3:1-3; I. Cor. 5 : 11-13.) 

3. Each church member must attend faithfully the public 
worship on the Sabbath day, and at all other times. 

4. This church shall yearly solemnly keep two days of humilia- 
tion, fasting, and prayer, which shall be designated by the preacher 
—one in the spring, the other in the autumn, of the year. 

5. The members of this church, impressed with the necessity 
of a constant religious exercise, suffering the word of God richly 
and daily to dwell in them (Col. 3 : 16; Heb. 3 : 13; 10 : 24, 25), 
resolve that each sex shall hold meetings apart, once a week, for 
which the most suitable day, hour, and place shall be chosen, for 
the males as well as the females; for the first, an hour in the 
evening, and for the last an hour in the daytime, are considered 



92 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

the most suitable. In the absence of the preacher, an elder or 
trustee shall lead such meetings. 

The rules for these special meetings are these: 

(a) No one can be received into them who is not resolved to 
flee the wrath to come, and, by faith and repentance, to seek his 
salvation in Christ, and who is not resolved willingly to obey the 
disciplinary rules which are now observed by this church for good 
order and advance in godliness, as well as such as in the future 
may be added by the preacher and church vestry; yet always 
excepted, that such rules are founded on the Word of God, which 
is the only unerring guide of faith and practice. 

(6) These meetings are to commence and end with singing and 
prayer; and nothing shall be done but what will tend to build up 
and advance godliness. 

(c) Those who attend these special meetings but indifferently, 
sickness and absence from home excepted, after being twice or 
thrice admonished, without manifest amendment, shall exclude 
themselves from the church. 

{d) Every member of this church should fervently engage in 
private worship, morning and evening pray with his family, and 
himself and his household attend divine worship at all times. 

(e) Every member shall sedulously abstain from all backbiting 
and evil-speaking of any person, or persons, without exception, 
and especially of his brethren in the church. (Rom. 15: 1-3; II. 
Cor. 12:20; I. Pet. 2:1; Jas. 4:11.) The transgressor shall, in 
the first instance, be admonished privately; but the second time 
he shall be openly rebuked in the class-meeting. 

(/) Everj'- one must avoid all worldly and sinful company, and 
to the utmost shun all foohsh talking and jesting. (Ps. 15 : 4; Eph. 
5 : 4-11.) This offense will meet with severe church censure. 

{g) No one shall be permitted to buy or sell on the Sabbath, nor 
attend to worldly business, or to travel far or near, but each shall 
spend the day in quietness and religious exercises. (Isa. 58 : 13, 14.) 

(A) Each member shall willingly attend to any of the i^rivate 
concerns of the church, when required to do so by the preacher 
or vestry ; and each one shall strive to lead a quiet and godly 
life, lest he give offense, and fall into the condemnation of the 
adversary. ( Matt. 5 : 14-16; I. Pet. 2 : 12.) 

6. Persons expressing a desire to commune with us at the Lord's 
table, although they have not been members of our church, shall 
be admitted by consent of the vestry ; provided that nothing justly 
can be alleged against their walk in life, and more especially when it 
is known that they are seeking their salvation. After the prepara- 
tion sermon, such persons may declare themselves openly before the 



THE OTTERBEIN CHURCH IN BALTIMORE 93 

assembly, also, that they are ready to submit to all wholesome 
discipline; and thus they shall be received into the church. 

7. Forasmuch as the difference of people and denominations 
ends in Christ (Rom. 10 : 12; Col. 3 : 11), and availeth nothing in 
him, but a new creature (Gal. 6:13-16), it becomes our duty, 
according to the gospel, to commune with, and admit to the Lord's 
table, professors, to whatever order or sort of the Christian church 
they belong. 

8. All persons who may not attend our class-meetings, nor 
partake of the holy sacrament with us, but attend our public 
worship, shall be visited, by the preacher, in health and in sickness, 
and on all suitable occasions. He shall admonish them, baptize 
their children, attend to their funerals, impart instruction to their 
youths; and, should they have any children, the church shall 
interest itself for their religious education. 

9. The preacher shall make it one of his highest duties to watch 
over the rising youth, diligently instructing them in the principles 
of religion, according to the Word of God. He should catechise 
them once a week; and the more mature in years, who have 
obtained a knowledge of the great truths of the gospel, should be 
impressed with the importance of striving, through divine grace, 
to become worthy recipients of the holy sacrament. And in view 
of church membership, such as manifest a desire to this end should 
be thoroughly instructed for a time, be examined in the presence of 
their parents and the vestry, and, if approved, after the prejDaration 
sermon, they should be presented before the church, and admitted. 

10. The church is to establish and maintain a German school, 
as soon as possible ; the vestry to spare no effort to j)rocure the most 
competent teachers, and devise such means and rules as will promote 
the best interests of the school. 

11. That, after the demise or removal of the preacher, the male 
members of the church shall meet, without delay, in the church 
edifice, and, after singing and prayer, one or more shall be proposed 
by the elders and trustees. A majority of votes shall determine 
the choice, and a call shall be made accordingly; but should the 
preacher on whom the choice falls decline the call, then as soon as 
possible others shall be proposed, and a choice .made. But here 
it is especially reserved, that should it so happen that before the 
demise or removal of the preacher his place should already have 
been provided for, by a majority of votes, then no new choice shall 
take place. 

12. No preacher shall stay among us who is not in unison with 
our adopted rules, and order of things, and class-meetings, and who 
does not diligently observe them. 



94 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

13. No preacher can stay among us Avho teacheth the doctrine 
of predestination [Gnadenwahl']^ or the impossibility of falling from 
grace, and who holdeth them as doctrinal points. 

14. No preacher can stay among us who will not to the best 
of his ability care for the various churches in Pennsylvania, 
Maryland, and Virginia, which churches, under the superintendence 
of William Otterbein, stand in fraternal unity with us. 

15. No preacher can stay among us who shall refuse to sustain, 
with all diligence, such members as have arisen from this or some 
other churches, or who may yet arise, as helpers in the work of the 
Lord, as preachers and exhorters, and to afford unto them all possible 
encouragement, so long as their lives shall be according to the gospel. 

16. All the preceding items shall be presented to the preacher 
chosen, and his full consent thereto obtained, before he enters upon 
his ministry. 

17. The preacher shall nominate the elders from among the 
members who attend the special meetings, and no others shall be 
proposed ; and their duties shall be made known unto them, by him, 
before the church. 

18. The elders, so long as they live in accordance with the 
gospel and shall not attempt to introduce any new act contrary 
to this constitution and these ordinances, are not to be dismissed 
from their office, except on account of debility, or other cause. 
Should an elder wish to retire, then in that case, or in case of re- 
moval by death, the place shall be supplied by the preacher, as 
already provided. 

19. The three trustees are to be chosen yearly, on New-year's 
day, as follows : The vestry will propose six from among the mem- 
bers who partake with us of the holy sacrament. Each voter shall 
write the names of the three he desires as trustees, on a piece of 
paper, and when the church has met, these papers shall be collected, 
opened, and read, and such as have a majority of votes shall be 
announced to the church, and their duties made known unto them, 
by the preacher, in the presence of the church. 

20. The almoner shall be chosen at the same time and in the 
same manner as the trustees, and at the next election will present 
his account. 

21. The preacher, elders, and trustees shall attend to all the affairs 
of the church, compose the church vestry, and shall be so con- 
sidered. 

22. All deeds, leases, and other rights concerning the property 
of this church, shall be conveyed, in the best and safest manner, to 
this church vestry, and their successors, as trustees of this church. 

23. Should a preacher, elder, or trustee be accused of any known 



THE OTTERBEIN CHUB CH IN BALTIMORE 95 

imnaorality, and upon the testimony of two or three credible wit- 
nesses the same should be proven against him, he shall be immedi- 
ately suspended; and, until he gives sure proof of true repentance, 
and makes open confession, he shall remain excluded from this 
church. The same rule shall be observed and carried out in relation 
to members of the church who shall be found guilty of immoral 
conduct. (I. Cor. 5 : 11-13; I. Tim. 5 : 20; Tit. 3 : 10.) 

24. All offenses between members shall be dealt with in strict 
conformity with the precepts of our Lord. ( Matt. 18 : 15-18.) No 
one is, therefore, permitted to name the offender, or the offense, 
except in the order prescribed by our Saviour. 

25. No member is allowed to cite his brother before the civil 
authority, for any cause. All differences shall be laid before the 
vestry, or each party may choose a referee from among the members 
of the church, to whom the adjustment of the matter shall be 
submitted. The decision of either the vestry or referees shall be 
binding on each party ; nevertheless, should any one believe himself 
wronged, he may ask a second hearing, which shall not be refused. 
The second hearing may be either before the sanae men, or some 
others of the church; but whosoever shall refuse to abide by this 
second verdict, or, on any occasion, speak of the matter of dispute, 
or accuse his opponent with the same, excludes himself from the 
church. 

26. The elders and trustees shall meet four times in the year; 
namely, the last Sabbath in March, the last Sabbath in June, the 
last Sabbath in September, and the last Sabbath in December, in 
the parsonage-house, after the afternoon service, to take the affairs 
of the church into consideration. 

27. This constitution and these ordinances shall be read every 
New-year's day, before the congregation, in order to keep the same 
in special remembrance, and that they may be carefully observed, 
and no one plead ignorance of the same. 

28. We, the subscribers, acknowledge the above-written items 
and particulars as the groundwork of our church, and we ourselves, 
as co-members, by our signatures, recognize and solemnly promise 
religious obedience to the same. 

WILLIAM OTTEEBEIN, Preacher. 

Lehard Herbach [Leonard Harbaugh],^ 
Henry Weitner [Weidner], \ Elders. 

Peter Hoffman, 

Philip Bier, 

William Baker, \ Trustees. 

Abraham Lorsh [Larsh^ 

BAiiTiMORE, January 1, 1785. 



J 



96 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

This document, embracing first a statement of the origin 
of this church, then a constitution, with a series of dis- 
ciplinary rules, acquires now, after the lapse of more than 
a century, a peculiar historical interest and value. It 
shows most manifestly that this church, beginning to take 
separate form in 1771, more definitely in 1774, and fully 
organized in 1785 by the adoption and formal promulga- 
tion of the rules which it had observed during this 
time, was, without possible ground for controversy, an 
independent and distinct body, having no connection, 
ecclesiastically or otherwise, with the German Reformed 
Church from which it sprang — neither with the local 
Reformed congregation in Baltimore, nor with the German 
Reformed Church as a denomination, nor with the coetus 
representing the denomination. And it shows as clearly, 
by its recognition of other local churches in Pennsylvania, 
Maryland, and Virginia, over which Mr. Otterbein exercised 
a superintending care, that the church for which it was 
framed was the initial church of that already associated 
body of churches which in time, with other congregations 
similarly independent, came to be known as the Church 
of the United Brethren in Christ. 

In summarizing the following points respecting this 
document, the outline and thought of Mr. Lawrence in 
his History of the United Brethren Church are mainly 
followed, as INIr. Lawrence himself followed the more 
condensed statement of Mr. Spayth. 

1. The church on Howard's Hill was "brought to- 
gether by the ministrations of William Otterbein." Before 
Mr. Otterbein came to Baltimore a division had already 
for some time existed, a portion of the members of the 
German Reformed church withdrawing because they could 
no longer endure the ministry of Mr. Faber and his 
successor, Mr. Wallauer. These withdrawing members 



THE OTTERBEIN CHURCH IN BALTIMORE 97 

had meantime been served by Mr. Schwope, but had not 
been definitely organized into a church. In May, 1774, 
Mr. Otterbein, on his arrival in Baltimore, "without 
delay, and by the help of God, began to organize a 
church." 

2. The name given to this church was not German 
Reformed, but Evangelical Reformed, the purpose being 
to express its independent relation, and at the same time 
also to emphasize its distinctive character for a more 
pronounced spirituality — the ground, in fact, of its as- 
suming an independent position. The church did not 
by this step cease to be a Reformed church. Its pastor 
did not withdraw from the coetus, nor did the coetus 
disfellowship him. Its position was that of an independent 
Reformed church. And this attitude of independence it 
retained in part after entering into relationship with the 
United Brethren Church. 

3. A Christian experience and a godly life are insisted 
upon as requisites of membership, and provision is made 
for the expulsion of such as cease to strive after holiness, 
or lead ungodly lives, conditions then rarely insisted upon 
in the German Reformed Church. 

4. Distinct provision is made for holding class-meetings^ 
with the manner, object, and duty set forth, a form of 
service then unknown in the German Reformed Church. 
So strongly was the class-meeting emphasized that it was 
ordained that no preacher unfavorable to it should serve 
them as a pastor. 

5. Not _ only secret, but family, prayer was enjoined 
as obligatory upon the members, a duty certainly not 
widely recognized in the German Reformed churches in 
America at that time. Family prayer was often scoffed 
at as folly, as we shall hereafter see.^ 

1 See p. 108. 

7 



98 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

6. Keeping worldly and sinful company, and foolish 
talking and jesting, were made grounds for severe censure, 
thus seeking to elevate to a high position the standard 
of personal conduct. 

7. The peculiar doctrines of Calvinistic theology were 
not to be introduced or preached in the church, or held 
by any of its ministers. "No preacher can stay among 
us who teacheth the doctrine of predestination, or the 
impossibility of falling from grace, and who holdeth them 
as doctrinal points." 

This is a very strong position. We have already seen 
that at Herborn, and generally among German divines, 
there was a tendency toward relaxation in regard to the 
severer tenets of Calvinism.^ Nevertheless, their place in 
the Heidelberg Catechism remained fixed — "in the back- 
ground," it is true, as Dr. Lewis Mayer expresses it in 
He Pasa Ekklesia, but still unchallenged. After remarking 
that "the doctrinal system of the German Reformed Church 
is contained in the Heidelberg Catechism," that "the cate- 
chism, in its general character, is Calvinistic," and that 
"the Heidelberg Catechism is the only symbolical book 
of the church in the United States," Dr. Mayer continues 
that "subscription to the catechism by candidates for the 
ministry is not required at their ordination, a verbal pro- 
fession of the doctrine of the church being deemed suffi- 
cient."^ But here in this thirteenth article of the "Church 
Book" is a direct and positive contravention of these doc- 
trinal features of the catechism. No man who either 
teaches or holds them can stay in the church. Mr. 
Otterbein, though brought up in a church, and educated 
in a school, which held and taught the Calvinistic the- 
ology, — in its milder forms, it is true, as just indi- 
cated, — had become Arminian in his faith, and engrafted 

1 See p. 27. « He Pasa Ekklesia, pp. 343, 344, 345. 



THE OTTERBEIN CHURCH IN BALTIMORE 99 

his theological beliefs into the "Church Book" of his 
congregation. If the setting aside of important features 
of a creed, and the adoption of tenets of a directly oppo- 
site character, can be understood as so far changing a 
church as to make it something different from itself, that 
is, another church, then surely the adoption ah initio of 
tenets different from, and opposed to, those held by the 
parent church, must constitute Mr. Otterbein's church an 
organization separate and distinct from the German 
Reformed Church. 

8. It is to be noted that the '' Church Book" of Mr. 
Otterbein's church is utterly silent as to even the existence 
of the Heidelberg Catechism. One could not infer from 
anything it contains that such a symbol is known or 
recognized among Christian denominations. Nor does it 
mention, or in any way recognize, the Coetus of Pennsyl- 
vania, nor the Synod of Holland, nor the German Reformed 
Church as a denomination. Mr. Otterbein, who drew up 
this declaration, and the men who signed it, had no thought 
of any relation to, or connection with, the Heidelberg 
Catechism, the coetus, or the German Reformed Church. 
They clearly meant unqualified separation and independ- 
ence. 

In contrast with this may be placed the expression of 
the old Reformed church in Baltimore, adopted several 
years after Mr. Otterbein began his work there, stimulated 
apparently by the example in his church of requiring a 
godly and pious life as a condition of membership. The 
substance of this expression is quoted by Mr. Lawrence^ 
from a centenary sermon preached by Rev. Elias Heiner, 
as follows : 

"All the members of the congregation shall regularly 
attend divine worship on the Sabbath ; and, with the 

* Lawrence's History, Vol. I., p. 251. 



100 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

exception of poor persons, shall contribute to the support 
of the pastor and the congregation. All contentious per- 
sons shall not be regarded as church members. Those 
who fall into open sin shall be put away, and shall not 
be restored until they show sincere repentance and amend- 
ment of life, and declare their willingness to submit to 
the discipline of the church. Difficulties in the congrega- 
tion that cannot be adjusted, shall be referred to the 
synod. No foreign minister can preach in our church 
without the consent of the pastor and consistory, and he 
must acknowledge the Reformed confessions of Switzer- 
land and Holland. ... In catechetical instruction, the 
Heidelberg Catechism only shall be used." 

Nothing could be more decided than the contrast be- 
tween this expression and that of the "Church Book" of 
Mr. Otterbein's church. Here is a distinct recognition 
of the German Reformed Church and the Heidelberg 
Catechism, and the declarations of the Reformed Church 
in Holland and Switzerland, and a positive requirement 
that everything must be in conformity with their order. 

9. But to set the position of Mr. Otterbein's church 
in a still stronger light, the fourteenth and fifteenth arti- 
cles of the "Church Book" contain a distinct and decisive 
recognition of "various churches in Pennsylvania, Mary- 
land, and Virginia." These churches, the fourteenth article 
says, are "under the superintendence of William Otterbein," 
and "stand in fraternal unity with us," and it imposes 
an absolute obligation on 'the ministers of the Otter- 
bein Church to recognize these churches. The fifteenth 
article declares that "no preacher can stay among us 
who shall refuse to sustain, with all diligence, such 
members as have arisen from this or some other 
churches, or who may yet arise, as helpers in the work 
of the Lord, as preachers and exhorters, and to afford 



THE OTTEEBEIN CHURCH IN BALTIMORE 101 

unto them all possible encouragement, so long as their 
lives shall be according to the gospel." 

Let not any one think of laying such an obligation 
upon a German Reformed church, or of requiring min- 
isters of the Reformed Church to recognize churches 
irregularly organized, repudiating the catechism, and hav- 
ing uneducated and unordained ministers, or to accord 
to such a ministry an unqualified fellowship. The thought 
of it is preposterous, and the suggestion could have been 
only offensive. 

That ministers rejecting the doctrine of "absolute 
reprobation" were in some cases denied permission to 
preach in German Reformed churches, is attested by a 
statement in point by Mr. Harbaugh. In the year 1742 
the pious and distinguished Count Zinzendorf, when on 
a visit to Philadelphia, desired to preach in a church 
owned conjointly by the Reformed and Lutheran churches. 
Applying to Rev, John Philip Boehm, the Reformed 
pastor, for permission, he stated frankly and in most 
courteous language his attitude with respect to that 
doctrine. Permission was politely but unhesitatingly 
denied.^ 

The churches referred to in articles 13 and 14, in 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, were such societies 
as were formed of men and women converted under the 
preaching of Mr. Otterbein at various points visited by 
him from time to time, under the preaching of Mr. Boehm 

1 Fathers of the Reformed Church, Vol. I., pp. 279-281. The following is a por- 
tion of the correspondence, as quoted by Harbaugh: Zinzendorf to Boehm: 
"But because I know that you preach in the same church, and I am not 
inclined to the doctrine of an absolute reprobation, as a doctrine which, in my 
religion, is confessedly held as wholly and fundamentally erroneous, I have 
thought it proper to enquire of you whether you have a right to present 
aught against my preaching there, since I do not wish to burden any one, 
or interfere with his rights." Mr. Boehm's answer: "I will be understood as 
protesting, if any one should say that permission was given from the Reformed 
side, or from me, to Count Zinzendorf, to preach at the time and place 
belonging to us, the Reformed." 



102 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

among his own people, the Mennonites, and under the 
ministrations of Guething, Newcomer, and others, converts 
to an evangehcal faith and experience, who had them- 
selves become men of marked power in the gospel. Most 
of these men were unordained by the laying on of human 
hands, but the touch of a mightier Hand was upon their 
hearts. Some of them were excommunicated from the 
fellowship of those who before had called them brethren. 
The greater number were uneducated, but, like the 
fishermen and tax-gatherers of Galilee, the}' kept close 
company with the Master, and acquired a living theol- 
ogy then less emphasized in the cold formalism of the 
churches than at the present time. They were plain 
men from the fields, with slight knowledge of the rules 
of rhetoric or cultured speech, but God gave them power 
to reach men's hearts, and everywhere the common people 
heard them gladly, and many under their preaching were 
gathered into the Master's fold. They kept also closely 
in touch with their eminent leader, the pastor of the 
Evangelical Reformed Church in Baltimore. He exercised 
over them a general pastoral care, fulfilling even then, 
though without the name, the highest office of a bishop, 
that of a general oversight of the flock of God. This 
relationship the church in Baltimore recognized, and de- 
clared that no minister could remain among them who 
would refuse to extend to the "preachers and exhorters" 
among these churches "all possible encouragement." Thus 
under the directing hand of God, and through the ministry 
largely of lay ministers, were gathered together into 
numerous congregations, but into a common fellowship, 
those who in the several churches sought after a thorough 
and conscious conversion and a truly spiritual life. To 
them were added many by conversion who had not 
previously held connection with any of the existing 



THE OTTERBEIN CHURCH IN BALTIMORE 103 

denominations. And these were the people who, after 
the lapse of further time, joined themselves together 
under a common church bond as the United Brethren 
in Christ. 

II. MR. OTTERBEIN's RULES ACCEPTED BY THE CHURCHES. 

The "Church Book," embodying a constitution and 
disciplinary rules, was prepared for the congregation in 
Baltimore alone. But its thoroughly biblical and prac- 
tical character commended it to the favor of other con- 
gregations also. Hence we find Mr. Spayth remarking : 
"From the second paragraph to the sixth, including the 
letter (^), we have presented to us, in a concise and scrip- 
tural form, all that is most essential in constituting a 
church, and the rules which should govern the same, 
individually and collectively. As such they were accept- 
able to all the churches, from and after the first confer- 
ence, held in the city of Baltimore, in 1789, up to the 
time of the General Conference in 1815, when they entered, 
with little variation, under their appropriate sections into 
our present Discipline."^ 

The following fitting and comprehensive paragraph is 
quoted from Mr. Spayth: "We like the spirit which 
pervades that document throughout. Being written in 
sententious style, it must be read with care. In the orig- 
inal, it is one of the most compact, and at the same time 
one of the most comprehensive, productions of the pen. 
Take it as a whole, and in view of the time and the pre- 
vailing prejudices, it bears the impress of a master mind, 
and does honor to the author. The purity of the ministry ; 
the piety of members ; the necessity of attending faithfully 
on the means of grace, in public and in private ; the 
propriety of class- and prayer-meetings ; the sacredness 

1 Spayth's History, p. 56. 



•104 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

of the Sabbath, and how it should be spent ; the doctrine 
of the church ; that preachers must harmonize and sus- 
tain each other in the work of the Lord to the best of 
their ability : these points enter essentially into the ele- 
mentary rules of a Christian church, and upon the 
observance of them rest the usefulness and perpetuity of 
churches. As to the age of the Discipline of the United 
Brethren Church in Christ, it is of little importance 
whether it be of yesterday or a century past ; but it is 
all-important that it be of the right character, and in 
the letter and spirit of the Scriptures." The paragraph 
closes with the significant and true w^ords, ^'In whatever 
light our present Discipline may be viewed, and however 
favorably adjudged by an intelligent community, we find 
its original traced out by William Otterbein as early as 
1785."^ 

1 Spayth's History, p. 57. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE MOVEMENT TOWARD A SEPARATE CHURCH 
ORGANIZATION 

I. THE NECESSITY OP A NEW MOVEMENT. 

The enlightened Christian thought of the present time, 
a period in which the spirit of fraternal union is so widely 
cherished between the people of different denominations, 
regards with disfavor any movement looking toward a 
new religious denomination. Yet there have been times 
when Divine Providence manifestly led the way toward 
such a result, and when the blessing of God followed 
signally those who for the sake of a better religious life 
broke away from ecclesiastical relations which fixed upon 
them a hopeless spiritual bondage, and hindered, or with 
threats of penalties forbade, the exercise of the freer 
spiritual activities. Without such a movement the Refor- 
mation would have been impossible, and the greater part 
of Christendom must have remained permanently under 
the control of a centralized and all-powerful spiritual mon- 
archy. Our divine Lord himself originated a movement 
which gradually took men out of their old relations in 
a long and indeed divinely established church, and led 
to the formation of a new and freer church which remains 
to the present time. Church history abounds with illus- 
trations of godly men seeking again the blessings of 
spiritual freedom under new and independent conditions. 
When true spiritual life is repressed, and dead formalities, 
associated often even with gross immoralities in low and 
high places, hold sway in the church, and when those 

105 



106 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

who seek to lead godly lives are mocked and scoffed 
at and even persecuted by their unspiritual associates in 
the church, separation sometimes becomes a necessity. 

Of Mr. Otterbein it has already been remarked that he 
was reluctant to take any steps looking toward the organ- 
ization of a separate denomination. He was warmly 
attached to the church of his ancestors, the church of 
his devout and greatly beloved mother, in which his 
father and all his brothers were honored ministers, and 
in which he received his education and Christian train- 
ing. Conservative in disposition, he could not easily break 
away from traditions which he associated with the most 
sacred things of life. And, in fact, he never did formally 
separate himself, nor was he ever separated by any 
act of the synod, from his place in the German Reformed 
Church. His name was retained on the ministerial roll 
of that body up to the end of his life, and until within 
seven years of the end he continued to attend occa- 
sionally its annual sessions. In 1806, however, the last 
time he was present at a session, he did not attend 
until he was sent for, and then remained but a short 
time. For a quarter of a century he had devoted 
unsparingly the best energies of mind and heart to the 
service of the Reformed Church, seeking in every place 
where he held pastoral relations, and in many more which 
from time to time he visited, to lead the people into a 
nearer relationship to Christ, and kindle the fires of a 
more fervent religious life. And in all this much success 
attended his labors. At Lancaster, at Tulpehocken, at 
Frederick City, and at York many were, through his 
earnest preaching and the influence of his pure and godly 
life, brought into a Christian experience to which they 
had been strangers before. And then, too, he found men 
in the ministrv of the Reformed Church who fullv svm- 



MOVEMENT TOWARD A SEPARATE ORGANIZATION 107 

pathized with him and his work, some of whom cooperated 
with him gladly in his spiritual work, but remained in 
their places in the church. Of some of these something 
is to be said farther on. It was not a light matter to 
dissolve, even in part, relations which had so long been 
dear to him, and which now so strongl}'- bound his heart. 
Like Mr. Wesley, who, though he was the founder and 
leader of that great movement in the British Islands and 
in America which bears the name of Methodism, retained 
to the end of his life his relationship to the Church of 
England, Mr. Otterbein was most reluctant to separate 
himself from his mother church. Mr. Lawrence, speak- 
ing of this feeling on his part, says: "Although he had 
nothing to retract or recall of what he had said or done, 
and what he was still doing, the dissolving of those rela- 
tions which, next to God, had possessed his heart, filled 
his soul with sorrow and anguish, at times, which knew 
no bounds ; tears would fill his eyes and, in big drops, 
run down his cheeks ; and then again, as if he would 
lay hold on Heaven for an answer, he would exclaim, 
^Oh, how can I give thee up!'"^ It has been well said 
that nothing could change or in any degree embitter his 
feelings toward his ministerial brethren of the Reformed 
Church, though some among them criticised his course 
with a severity amounting to persecution. 

But were the conditions prevailing in the churches of 
that time of such a character as to justify a general 
movement toward separation? Was the religious vitality 
so low, was the outward life of many church members 
so far from that which becometh Christ, and was there 
among unregenerate and ungodly church members such 
a spirit of persecution toward their more godly neighbors, 
as to render necessary the holding of separate services 

^ Lawrence's History, p. 259. 



108 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

and the forming of separate congregations? In answer 
to these questions, so far as it describes the prevailing 
conditions of the latter half of the eighteenth century, 
we quote testimony which no one will hold in doubt, the 
words of distinguished writers in other churches, as Dr. 
J. W. Nevin, of the Reformed, and Dr. Benjamin Kurtz, 
of the Lutheran Church. 

Dr. Nevin was one of the strong defenders of the Re- 
formed Church, of the Heidelberg Catechism, and the 
polity of the church. He could not approve the methods 
adopted by Mr. Otterbein, but he strongly sets forth the 
type of the church life which prevailed in Mr. Otterbein's 
time. In his twenty-eighth lecture on the Heidelberg 
Catechism, published in 1842, at a time when the Re- 
formed Church had become largely emancipated from the 
earlier spiritual lethargy, Dr. Nevin says : " To be con- 
firmed, and then to take the sacrament occasionally, was 
counted by the multitude all that was necessary to make 
one a good Christian, if only a tolerable decency of out- 
ward life were maintained besides, without any regard 
at all to the religion of the heart. True, serious piety 
was indeed often treated with open and marked scorn. 
In the bosom of the church itself it was stigmatized 
as Schwdrmerei, Kopfhdngerei, or miserable, driveling 
Methodism. The idea of the new birth was treated as a 
Pietistic whimery. Experimental religion in all its forms 
was eschewed as a new-fangled invention of cunning 
impostors, brought in to turn the heads of the weak and 
to lead captive silly women. Prayer-meetings were held 
to be a spiritual abomination. Family worship was a 
species of saintly affectation, barely tolerable in the case 
of ministers (though many of them gloried in having 
no altar in their houses), but absolutely disgraceful for 
common Christians. To show an awakened concern on 



MOVEMENT TOWARD A SEPARATE ORGANIZATION 109 

the subject of religion, a disposition to call on God in 
daily secret prayer, was to incur certain reproach. . . . 
The picture, it must be acknowledged, is dark, but not 
more so than the truth of history would seem to require." 

No one not of the Reformed Church would dare to 
write such an arraignment as this, lest he should be 
guilty of a grave discourtesy toward the people of another 
denomination. But Dr. Nevin had a right to speak thus 
historically of his own. And he certainly did not so 
write with any thought of defending those who were 
prominent in the revival movements of the period of 
which he speaks. After referring to the losses sustained 
by the Reformed Church through individual transfers to 
other denominations, he goes on to speak of distinct organ- 
izations which, he says, "started forth originally from the 
Reformed Church itself, and have since acquired very 
considerable volume, made up in great measure of German 
material, though not all gathered from the Reformed 
connection. Otterbein, of Baltimore," Dr. Nevin now con- 
tinues specifically, "at a comparatively early period 
(1789) became the founder of one of these organiza- 
tions. . . . He was a good man, who seems to have 
been driven into a false position by the cold, dead 
temper that he found generally prevalent in the regular 
church." ^ 

In full agreement with this representation by Dr. 
Nevin, is that of Dr. Kurtz, referring to the early portion 
of the present century. In the Lutheran Observer of 
January 12, 1855, Dr. Kurtz says: "Some thirty-five 
years ago [1820], when God in his mercy sanctioned our 
labors with a glorious outpouring of his Spirit, and for 
the first time in our ministry granted us a mighty revival, 
the opposition of the world and the devil was almost 

* Quoted by Dr. Drury in Life of Otterbein; as also the extract following. 



110 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

unparalleled. A revival in the Lutheran Church was a 
new thing in that day. We had never heard of but 
one, and that was in Brother Reek's church, in Win- 
chester, Virginia. He can testify to the bitterness, 
malevolence, and awful wickedness that characterized 
the adversaries of such divine visitations, in those days 
of ignorance, hardness of heart, and spiritual blindness." 
Dr. B. B, Tyler, in his history of the Disciples of Christ, 
in the "American Church History Series," after some 
general observations on "the moral and religious life of 
our fathers at the close of the eighteenth and beginning 
of the nineteenth centuries," remarking upon the low 
plane to which religion had fallen, proceeds to give a 
view of the religious condition of the colleges of that 
time. The picture drawn is a startling one, when placed 
in contrast with the religious state of our colleges at the 
present time. "When Theodore Dwight," he remarks, "be- 
came president of Yale College, in 1795, only four or five 
students were members of the church. The predominant 
thought w^as skeptical. In respect to the Christian faith, 
the students of the College of New Jersey (Princeton) 
were not superior to the young men in Yale. The College 
of William and Mary was a hot-bed of unbelief. Transyl- 
vania University, now Kentucky University, founded by 
Presbyterians, was in the hands of men who repudiated 
the evangelical faith. At Bowdoin College, at one time 
in the early part of the nineteenth century only one 
student was willing to be known as a Christian. Bishop 
Meade has said that so late as the year 1810, in Virginia, 
he expected to find every educated young man whom he 
met a skeptic, if not an avowed unbeliever. Chancellor 
Kent, who died in 1847, said that in his younger days 
there were but few professional men who were not un- 
believers. Lyman Beecher [the father of Henry Ward 



MOVEMENT TOWARD A SEPARATE ORGANIZATION 111 

Beecher], in his autobiography, says, speaking of the 
early years of this century and the closing years of the 
last, that it was Hhe day of the Tom Paine school, when 
boys who dressed flax in the barn read Tom Paine and 
believed him.' Mr. Beecher graduated from Yale in 1797, 
and he tells us that the members of the class of 1796 were 
known to one another as Voltaire, Rousseau, D'Alembert, 
etc. About this time also wild and undefined expectations 
were, in many places and by many persons, entertained 
of a new order of things, and better, about to be ushered 
in. The Christian religion, it was thought, would soon 
be thrown to one side as obsolete. ... It is said that 
in the year 1800 only one Congregational church in 
Boston remained loyal to the old faith. When the Eev. 
Dr. E. D. Griffin became pastor of the Park Street church, 
in 1811, the current of thought and feeling against 
orthodoxy was so decided and intense that men went to 
hear him in disguise. They could not endure the ridicule 
that they would certainly receive from their acquaintances 
if the fact became known that they had given attention 
to a sermon delivered by an evangelical minister."^ 

These glimpses give us a view of the prevailing religious 
condition of the American colleges, and of one of the chief 
American cities of that time, outside of the narrow geo- 
graphical limitations in which the work of Mr. Otterbein 
and his fellow-laborers was accomplished. But here fol- 
lows a view that had probably a wide application to the 
morality of the colonies and of the States after the Revo- 
lutionary War : 

"Unbelief and immoral living were joined hand to 
hand. Intemperance prevailed to an alarming extent. 
To become stupidly drunk did not seriously injure a 
man's reputation. The decanter was in every home. 

^ American CJiurch History Series, Vol. XII., pp. 2, 3. 



112 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Total abstinence had hardly been thought of. Temper- 
ance sermons were not preached ; the pulpit was dumb 
on this evil. Members of Christian churches in regular 
standing drank to intoxication. The highest church offi- 
cials often indulged immoderately in drink. When the 
physician visited a patient he was offered a stimulant. 
At marriages, at births, and at the burial of the dead 
drinking was indulged in. A pastor in New York City, 
as late as 1820, has left on record the statement that it 
was difficult to make pastoral visits for a day without 
becoming, in a measure, intoxicated. Lyman Beecher 
has given an account of an ordination in which the par- 
ticipating ministers drank until they were in a state 
bordering on intoxication. The Rev. Daniel Dorchester, 
D.D., quotes a minister of this period as saying that he 
could reckon up among his acquaintances forty ministers 
who were either drunkards or so far addicted to the use 
of strong drink that their usefulness was impaired."^ 

These statements, so graphically presented, show not 
only a most unhappy religious condition in the colleges 
and, in general, among the people not connected with the 
churches, but also within the sacred circles of the church. 
Especially do the representations of Dr. Nevin and Dr. 
Kurtz illustrate the low ebb to which within the churches 
spiritual life had fallen. It was to reform these conditions, 
to raise the standard of a truer Christian life, to bring 
men back to a living faith and a genuine experience 
of the power of Christ to convert and save the soul, that 
^Ir. Otterbein and those associated with him addressed 
themselves. With great earnestness and unfaltering pur- 
pose they pressed forward their work, and under the 
attending favor of God achieved most blessed success. 

yAm€i~ican Church History Series, Vol. XII., pp. 3, 4. 



MOVEMENT TOWABD A SEPARATE ORGANIZATION 113 

II. ASSOCIATES IN THE WORK. 

1. Martin Boehm. 

Before passing on to speak of the notable initial con- 
ference held in 1789, it will be proper here to say 
something further of some of the associates of Mr. Otter- 
bein in the revival work. A few names will be presented 
here. 

Mr. Boehm continued to preach, as he had now done 
for many years, the gospel of a true spiritual life among 
his people, not only to those of his own neighborhood, but 
to others in various places. It was to be expected that 
his zeal would in time awaken serious opposition, but it 
was hardly to be looked for that a man of such manifest 
sincerity, and of so urbane and kindly a spirit, should by 
and by be disfellowshiped by his brethren. Yet such was 
actually the case. A formal indictment was at last made 
out against him, and he was cited to answer. 

Mr. Boehm, like Mr. Otterbein, did not desire to sepa- 
rate himself from the church in which he was brought 
up, and, like him, was not moved by any unholy ambition 
to lead in a schismatic movement. It is greatly to the 
credit of the founders of the United Brethren Church that 
they did not desire to create division in the body of Christ. 
It was their noble ambition to elevate the standard of 
spirituality and godly living in the churches with which 
they were connected. In this they were in good degree 
successful, and the earnestness of their labors and the 
success following aroused against them the worldly and 
unhallowed spirit which to so unhappy an extent pre- 
vailed in the churches of that time. It was this spirit 
which, arraying itself against them, procured the expulsion 
of some of them from the communions in which they 
stood. Among these was Mr. Boehm, of the Mennonite 



114 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Church, one of the most worthy of the ministers of that 
denomination. Jesus said to the apostles that they should 
be cast out of the synagogues, and precisely this happened 
to these later apostles of the gospel of Jesus, for their 
fidelity in proclaiming the deeper and richer significance 
of the precious word of life. 

It is evident, however, that in the case of Mr. Boehm 
this step was taken with sincere regret, and after much 
forbearance, as his brethren in the Mennonite ministry 
understood forbearance. In a small volume published so 
recently as 1875,^ is contained at length the history of 
the proceedings against Mr. Boehm. The history is a 
translation of a very old document, written more than 
a century ago. By some singular providence this vener- 
able paper is preserved, and here is a rendering of it 
into English, made by Eev. John F. Funk, the author 
of the volume. 

The case against Mr. Boehm is set forth quite elabo- 
rately, the paper itself being a communication sent out 
to churches generally "by the ministers of the Mennonite 
Church of Lancaster County and vicinity." It is, as Mr. 
Funk tells us, without date, but certain marks about it 
point plainly to the period from 1775 to 1780, and this 
harmonizes with such knowledge as is left to us from 
other sources. After some general introductory state- 
ments the paper proceeds : 

"Now, however, it is a well-known fact that between us 
and Martin Boehm there is, in many points, a difference 
of views, and we have, at times, for several years already, 
labored to become more of one mind and to understand 
each other better, that we might be found faithful laborers 
in the church of Christ ; which, however, has not yet been 

1 The Mennonite Church and Her Accusers, by Rev. John F. Funk, Elkhart, 
Indiana, 1878. 



MOVEMENT TOWARD A SEPARATE ORGANIZATION 115 

accomplished, and the matter has, from time to time, 
become worse. For the reason, however, that the brother- 
hood do not possess as good a knowledge of the cause 
and origin of this disagreement between us, which con- 
sists of many things both in words and deeds, as we do 
(although many also are not entirely unacquainted with it), 
we have thought it prudent to write them and thus explain 
the matter. In the first place, in that in which we believe 
that he (Boehm) erred in the doctrine of Christ, he had 
a great deal to do with forming a union and associating 
with men (professors) w^ho allow themselves to walk on 
the broad way, practicing warfare and the swearing of 
oaths, both of which are in direct opposition to the truths 
of the gospel and the teachings of Christ." 

The other leading points made against him, which, 
with the above, are discussed at much length, and finally 
recapitulated, are that Mr. Boehm said the Scriptures 
might be burned, because they were a dead letter; "that 
Satan was good and beneficial to man," "that faith cometh 
from unbelief, life from death, and light out of darkness." 
It is very evident that Mr. Boehm's brethren heard distorted 
reports of his preaching, and that the accusations are quite 
akin to those brought against our Lord, when the witnesses 
said that they had heard him say that he would destroy 
the temple, and in three days build it again. The funda- 
mental fact was that as the preaching of Jesus differed 
from that of the religious teachers of his time, and they 
excluded him for that reason from their fellowship, so the 
earnest, spiritual, soul-kindling preaching of Boehm dif- 
fered from that of his brethren, and they summoned him 
to answer. To the requirement that he desist from his 
course, "he said he could not, but if it could be shown 
him that he had done wrong, he would recall." The vote 
for his expulsion being finally taken resulted affirmatively, 



116 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

and Mr. Boehm went away doubtless with thoughts of 
the apostles when "they departed from the presence of the 
council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer 
shame for his [Christ's] name."^ 

Mr. Funk proceeds to state, following the old manuscript, 
that Mr. Boehm's followers, such as were members of the 
Mennonite Church, were also "excluded from the com- 
munion and the counsel of the brotherhood, until in true 
sorrow and penitence they should return and acknowl- 
edge their errors both to God and to the church." 

Mr. Boehm was a burning and shining light whom 
God called to a special mission among that people, and 
happy had it been for them if they had received the 
divine message from his lips. He took his expulsion in 
good part, and went on with his work just as he had 
done before, preaching in his own neighborhood and in 
numerous other places which he had previously visited. 
His moral and Christian character had in no wise been 
assailed, nor had the purity of his motives been placed 
in doubt. And now, untrammeled by the traditional 
environments which before had in a degree circumscribed 
his efforts, he was indeed more free to preach to all who ' 
would hear, and the blessing of God rested richly upon 
his word. Not long afterward he left the care of his farm 
to his son and gave himself entirely to the work of 
traveling and preaching. 

2. George Adam Guething. 

Next in order among the most distinguished co-laborers 
of Mr. Otterbein, is to be placed the name of George Adam 
Guething, his own son in the gospel, as Timothy was of 
Paul, a man of fair culture though simple in life, "mighty 
in the Scriptures, and eloquent," as was Apollos, the 

»Aets5:41. 



MOVEMENT TOWAED A SEPARATE ORGANIZATION \VJ 

silver-tongued in that company of ardent reformers. Mr. 
Guething was born not far from the birthplace of 
Mr. Otterbein, at Nieder Schelden, in Nassau-Siegen, now 
a part of the province of Hesse-Nassau, Prussia/ on the 
sixth of February, 1741. Like Mr. Otterbein, he was 
brought up in the Reformed Church. His education 
was fair, including some knowledge of the Latin language, 
as well as the German, and he labored for some time as 
a miner. He came to America in his eighteenth year, 
landing, it is thought, at Baltimore, and making, soon 
afterward, his home at Antietam, Washington County, 
Maryland, where he resided during the rest of his life. 
Here for a considerable time he spent his winters in 
teaching school, and the rest of the year in quarrying 
stone and digging wells. The school-house in which he 
taught seems to have been that located on the farm which 
became widely known, as still at the present, as the 
Schnebley (Suavely, or Snively) homestead, a home famous 
for its large hospitality, the house standing near by the 
church which was afterward erected, and taking from 
the older house the name of "school-house." It was 
afterward known also as Guething's Meeting-house. This 
place was visited by Mr. Otterbein as early as 1760, 
when he was located at Frederick, as it had been by 
other Reformed ministers before him, and we cannot 
doubt that Mr. Guething received through Mr. Otterbein's 
preaching the divine impulse which brought him to a 
true conversion and bore him onward in his noble 
Christian career through life. 

Mr. Guething possessed an active temperament, and was 
soon seen to be an earnest Christian worker. He held 
also, in the best sense, the confidence of the people of 
the community, and was urged by them, during the inter- 

* Drury's lAfe of Otterbein, p. 149. 



118 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

vals of ministerial visits, to read to the congregation 
selected printed sermons on the Sabbath. Mr. Otterbein 
continued to visit this place after his removal to York, 
and later on during his life. The gracious fruits folio wing- 
Mr. Guething's work being observed by Mr. Otterbein, he 
directed that when Mr. Guething arose again to read a ser- 
mon some one should take the book out of his hands and 
leave him to his own resources. This was indeed proposing 
a heroic measure, but it was actually done. When Mr. 
Guething arose again to read, after having conducted the 
preliminary service, a brother, Mr. Jacob Hess, stepped 
forward and literally carried out Mr. Otterbein's instruc- 
tion. Mr. Guething was startled at first, but, soon recov- 
ering his poise, proceeded to deliver a most impressive 
address. His position as a minister now became fixed, 
and the people at Antietam and elsewhere heard gladly 
the words of life from his lips. He was ordained to the 
work of the ministry of the Reformed Church, by the lay- 
ing on of hands, by Mr. Otterbein and Dr. William 
Hendel, on Whitsuntide, 1783. 

Dr. Drury, in his Life of Otterbein, speaks thus of Mr. 
Guething : He " was a man of good physical constitution, 
and capable of great endurance. . . . He w-as possessed 
of superior gifts. His sympathies were ready and abun- 
dant. His understanding of occasions, and faculty of 
adaptation, w^ere much beyond the usual. He had a 
voice combining sweetness and power. His method and 
continued attention to books made him capable of great 
and increasing usefulness. In his preaching he w^as 
earnest, yet deliberate. His addresses to the conscience 
and feelings were always impressive, and sometimes 
strikingly moving. As he was in the first place, and in 
the strictest sense, a product of the revival movement, 
there were combined in him its strictest moral and logical 



MOVEMENT TOWARD A SEPARATE ORGANIZATION m 

characteristics. Otterbein and Boehm, though authors in 
the movement, were themselves formed by earher and differ- 
ent influences. The distinctive character of Mr. Guething 
was apparent in all of his course, from first to last." ^ 

Of the relations between Mr. Otterbein and Mr. Guething, 
Dr. Drury further remarks : " In very important respects 
he exerted a decided influence upon Mr. Otterbein ; and 
on some subjects, in regard to which Mr. Otterbein has 
given us no expression, Mr. Guething is the exponent of 
his thoughts. No field of labor was more enjoyable to 
Mr. Otterbein than that that awaited him at the Antietam, 
and in no counsels or associations did he more confide 
or find truer pleasure than in those that he enjoyed at 
George A. Guething's." ^ 

The small log church spoken of as built upon the 
Schnebley farm, afterward known as the Guething Meeting- 
house, is regarded as without doubt the first church 
erected distinctively for the followers of Mr. Otterbein in 
the revival movement. The date of its erection is lost, 
but it is believed to have been before that of Mr. Otterbein's 
arrival at Baltimore in 1774. The earliest band formed 
here embraced the names of Mr. Guething, Samuel Baker, 
Henry Smith, and, soon afterward, Jacob Hess, who has 
just been mentioned. Whether all in this company of 
worshipers were of German Reformed antecedents, or what 
relationship, if any, they assumed to the Reformed Church, 
is not now known. No deed was made for the ground 
upon which the humble church was built, the title remain- 
ing vested in the owner of the farm. The congregation 
was found with the United Brethren Church in the further 
developments of providence. 

"We find that Mr. Guething is given a place in Mr. Har- 
baugh's "Fathers of the Reformed Church." Mr. Harbaugh 

iPp. 151, 152. 2 p. 152. 



120 THE UNITED BBETHBEN IN CHRIST 

says that he "was prominently identified with the religious 
movement which resulted in the sect of the United Breth- 
ren in Christ, with which he fell in as early as 1772. . . . 
His name appears in the minutes of synod up to the year 
1804, though generally among the absent and excused. 
At the meeting of synod in Reading, April 29, 1804, 
complaints were preferred against Mr. Guething on account 
of disorderly conduct. . . . After a lengthy discussion," 
the resolution for his expulsion was carried "by a vote 
of twenty against seventeen." A further quotation from 
the minutes adds, "He can, however, at any time be 
restored, on giving evidence of true reformation." Re- 
marking further, Mr. Harbaugh says : " Highly fanatical 
proceedings on his part seem to have led to his expulsion. 
He continued ministering in harmony with the Brethren 
till his death. . . . He spent forty years in the ministry. 
Though wildly fanatical, and as such badly suited to be 
a leader of God's people, he seems to have been person- 
ally a good man." ^ 

This account of Mr. Guething's fanaticism, no other 
charge being laid against him, will not damage his mem- 
ory in the estimation of United Brethren. It was the 
kind of fanaticism into which the apostles fell, as regarded 
from the standpoint of Pharisees and scribes, the fanat- 
icism which has characterized many of the foremost 
ministers of the United Brethren Church, which gave to 
the Methodist Church its vast distinctive power to save 
souls, which distinguishes in strongest contrast the real, 
living, forward movements of the church from the iner- 
tia of spiritual death, but a fanaticism nevertheless 
which seemed to many of the Reformed ministers of that 
day, and to Mr. Harbaugh as well, to be out of harmony 
with the requirements of proper churchly decorum. And, 

1 Vol. II., p. 398. 



MOVEMENT TOWARD A SEPARATE ORGANIZATION 121 

further, it was after all a bare majority that pronounced 
sentence of excommunication, seventeen of the members 
voting against the unbrotherly proceeding. 

Mr. Harbaugh mentions a Mr. Becker as the chief 
instigator of the measure of expulsion. He was the same 
Becker who, two years later, having then become pastor 
in Baltimore, at a session of the synod of 1806, dealt 
so harshly with the venerable and saintly Otterbein, 
then eighty years of age, and for his last time in attend- 
ance upon the synod, and shortly afterward, on meeting 
him, poured out upon him bitter language, ending with 
a threat to have him expelled from the synod. His vile 
aspersions, however, failed to produce any effect on the 
minds of the ministers in the case of Mr. Otterbein. The 
greater number felt honored in being permitted to retain 
his name in association with their own, and Mr. Harbaugh, 
while speaking frankly of what he conceives to have been 
his errors, pays him distinguished honor in his extended 
memorial. And yet Mr. Otterbein's and Mr. Guething's 
offense was the same, with perhaps the difference that 
Mr. Otterbein, schooled under a more exact training in 
his early life, was more conservative in his methods. 

Mr. Spayth, in his history of the Church, thus places 
in contrast the varying talents of the three men whose 
names stand foremost in early United Brethren history : 
" The talent and ministerial graces of these three brethren- 
in-chief . . . cannot now be well conceived. . . . Otterbein 
was argumentative, eloquent, and often terrible. In the 
elucidation of Scripture he was very clear and full, few 
being his equal. Boehm was the plain, open, and frank 
expounder of God's Word, being all animation, all life, 
often irresistible, like a mighty current, carrying his 
hearers into deep water. But Brother Guething was more 
like a spring sun rising on a frost-silvered forest, gradually 



122 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

affording more heat, more light, till you could hear, as 
it were, the crackling in the forest, and the icy crust 
beginning to melt and fall away, and like a drizzling 
shower, ending in a clear and joyous day. Such was 
Guething. He was the St. John of this clover-leaf ; always 
soft and mellowing ; of good parts, having a well- 
cultivated mind ; in conversation cheerful, interesting, 
and pleasing ; and every way a desirable companion. . . . 
His bland manners, his affability and shining talents, 
secured for him universal respect and esteem, good con- 
gregations, and, what was much more important, access 
to the hearts and consciences of those who came to hear 
him."i 

Mr. Guething has by some been reckoned among the 
early bishops of the Church. From Mr. Spayth we learn 
that he presided at the session of an annual conference 
at Antietam, his own home, on May 12, 1812, ^ Bishop 
Boehm having died in ]\Iarch preceding, and Bishop 
Otterbein being too feeble from age to attend, but there 
seems to be no record of his having been at any time 
formally elected to the office of bishop. Had his death 
not occurred so soon after, just six weeks later, it is 
altogether probable that he would have been so elected 
as associate with Bishop Newcomer after the death of 
Bishop Otterbein. Mr. Spayth, whose time was in part 
contemporary with these fathers, does not speak of him 
as a bishop. 

3. Other Helpers. 

Before passing to other names which became per- 
manently identified with the movement which resulted 
in the organization of the United Brethren Church, it is 
proper here to introduce those of some devout men who 

1 Spayth 's History, p. 60. ^ Ibid., p. 129. 



MOVEMENT TOWARD A SEPARATE ORGANIZATION 123 

retained their active connection with the Eeformed Church, 
but gave to Mr. Otterbein their most cordial sympathy, 
and in some features of his work entered into practical 
cooperation with him. We have seen that at the session 
of the synod at which Mr. Guething's name was erased 
from the records the members were so far from unanimous 
that the minority sustaining him almost equaled the 
majority which voted for the exclusion, and also that 
the name of Mr. Otterbein was retained in honored relation 
to the end of his life. Indeed, Mr. Harbaugh makes 
complete claim to Mr. Otterbein for the Reformed Church, 
and represents that during the later years of his life he 
lamented having given his influence and support to the 
movement which grew into a separate denomination. We 
have abundant evidence that, so far from this being the 
case, he rejoiced over the results of his labors and those 
of his brethren with him in encouraging a truer appre- 
hension of the meaning of the gospel and a more devout 
Christian life. But it is a sincere pleasure to note that 
while many opposed him, some even to the extent of 
bitterness and persecution, sometimes closing the doors 
of their churches against him, there was a considerable 
number of the Reformed ministers who recognized the 
great value of his labors, and gladly cooperated with him. 
Foremost among these was the Rev. Dr. William Hendel, 
a man of fine education and brilliant pulpit powers. He 
came to America in 1765, well advanced in years, his 
first charge being that at Lancaster, where Mr. Otterbein 
began his work. He was a man of devout spirit, and 
appropriately recognized as the St. John among the 
Reformed ministers. Between him and Mr. Otterbein a 
warm friendship soon sprang up, which continued during 
life. His high standing is strongly attested by the history 
of that period, and no less so his earnest sympathy with 



124 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Mr. Otterbein in his particular work. He adopted in 
good part the methods of Mr. Otterbein, as, for example, 
the holding of regular prayer-meetings on week-day 
evenings. Another of Mr. Otterbein's warm friends was 
Rev. Daniel Wagner, a student of theology under Dr. 
Hendel. Mr. Wagner was pastor, at different times, of 
several of the churches which Mr. Otterbein had served, 
as at York, Tulpehocken, Frederick City, and a second 
time at York. Between Mr. AVagner and Mr. Otterbein 
a lasting friendship was formed, and a regular corre- 
spondence was maintained up to the end of Mr. Otterbein's 
life. In Mr. Harbaugh's "Fathers of the Reformed 
Church," no man stands with a fairer record than Mr. 
Wagner. Others of Mr. Otterbein's closer associates, all 
of them men of high standing in the coetus, were Rev. 
Anthony Hautz, also a pupil under Dr. Hendel, Rev. 
Frederick L. Henop, and Rev. Jacob Weimer. Among 
these was also the Rev. Benedict Schwope, through whose 
influence chiefly Mr. Otterbein was induced to become 
the pastor of the independent church in Baltimore. All 
these men were fully awake to the peculiar spiritual needs 
of the time, were thoroughly evangelical in spirit, and 
accomplished much good in the German Reformed 
Church. 1 

We are here to note a special form of religious meetings 
in which these ministers, six in number, including Mr. 
Otterbein, became interested, and which were maintained 
with much spiritual profit for a few years. To the reader 
acquainted with what was known as Pietism in Germany 
the resemblance between the meetings organized by these 
men and the Pietistic movement of the old country will 
readily occur. The movement in Germany, which took 

1 See biographical sketches in Mr. Harbaugh's Fathers of the Reformed Church, 
Vol. II. 



MOVEMENT TOWABD A SEPARATE ORGANIZATION 125 

its rise in the latter half of the seventeenth century, at 
Frankfort-on-the-Main, under the leadership of Philip Jacob 
Spener, was an effort to reawaken and encourage the 
growth of a true spiritual life in the dead orthodox 
churches. It did not propose the organization of a separate 
denomination or church, but sought to gather together 
for special and private religious services those who desired 
the experience of a deeper piety and the attainment of a 
more exemplary outward Christian life. It was but natural 
that the movement should meet with opposition on the 
part of the unconverted and worldly-minded who con- 
stituted the great body of the German churches. It was 
also doubtless true that the Pietists fell into excesses, 
such as must bring inevitable reproach upon those engaged 
in the movement. But the movement nevertheless accom- 
plished great good in Germany. Many who had until 
then rested satisfied with their relationship in the church, 
without any true Christian experience, were aroused from 
the sleep of a dead orthodoxy to a real life in Christ. 
The greatest development of the similar movement in 
England took place under John Wesley, w^ho, after his 
own conversion, sought to arouse the same genuine spirit- 
ual life in the Established Church. The reader will here 
remember that Mr. Wesley retained to the end of his life his 
connection with his mother church, while the great move- 
ment known as Methodism was inaugurated by him and 
with the help of his active associates advanced to a place 
of so great spiritual power among the religious forces 
of the world. 

Mr. Otterbein, under the guidance, of the eminent and 
devout Dr. Schramm, of Herborn, early imbibed Pietistic 
ideas, and we are here to recall, as above referred to, that 
among his regular duties as pastor at Ockersdorf was 
that of holding a weekly prayer-meeting. Regular meet- 



126 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

ings of a like kind held by him in Tulpehocken have 
already been spoken of, and here the example of Mr. 
Otterbein was followed by Dr. Hendel when, some years 
later, he succeeded to that charge. 

The special meetings now to be spoken of began to be 
held in the month of May, 1774, the year and month 
of Mr. Otterbein's coming to Baltimore. Among the min- 
isters themselves some form of bond was adopted, under 
the name of "The United Ministers." The particular 
form of their procedure was the organization into bands, 
or unions, of those in their congregations who desired 
to interest themselves in the promotion of their own per- 
sonal piety, and to seek also for the encouragement of a 
like deeper religious experience in the hearts of others. In 
this they adopted the precise method of Mr. Spener in Ger- 
many. Such bands, or classes, w^re organized by each of 
the ministers in his own congregation, and, as far as prac- 
ticable, in other congregations having no pastors, which 
they visited. In some of the congregations, where there 
was a general acquiescence on the part of the members, 
two or more classes were formed, the men and the women 
holding their meetings separately. Regular leaders were 
appointed for the classes, thus showing the beginning 
of a feature of United Brethren polity which has been 
maintained since. Some of these leaders, finding thus a 
special field for the exercise of their gifts, in time became 
ministers. Among these we find prominent the name of 
George Adam Guething. 

The United Ministers for two years held regularly 
semiannual meetings for the purpose of hearing reports 
of the work, and planning for its successful prosecution. 
The minutes of these meetings were some years ago 
discovered at Pipe Creek, near Baltimore, where Rev. 
Benedict Schwope was pastor. A transcript of those of 



MOVEMENT TOWARD A SEPARATE ORGANIZATION 127 

one or two of the meetings will here possess a special 
interest as illustrating what was sought to be done and 
the methods followed. The original is in the hand- 
writing of Mr. Schwope, who was secretary for the 
organization.^ 

May 29, 1774. 
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

At our meeting at Pipe Creek the following action was taken 
respecting our several congregations: 

1. Concerning the congregation at Baltimore it was resolved 
that, besides the public meeting on Sunday, the male members shall 
meet twice a week in two classes ; to wit, the class in the upper part 
of the city on Tuesday evening, and of this class Leonard Herbach 
is appointed leader [Aufseher}; the other class, of which Henry 
Weidner is leader, meets on Friday evening. The female members 
are to meet separately, every Tuesday afternoon. 

2. The members at Pipe Creek [die Peiff-Kricker'\ have also 
formed themselves into two classes. David Schreiber and Michael 
Huebener are appointed leaders of the first, and Uhly Aeckler and 
Hans Fischer of the second class. These are to meet every Sunday ; 
and no one is to withdraw without good reason. 

3. The members at Sam's Creek \_die Sam's Kricker'] are to con- 
stitute a single class. Adam Lehman and Martin Cassel are ap- 
pointed leaders. They are also to hold their meetings on Sunday. 

4. The members at Fredericktown \_die Friedrichstowner'] have 
organized but one class. They are to meet on Sunday evening, and 
propose to elect a leader for themselves. 

5. The members at Antietam [ die Antitemcr ] are to meet every 
Sunday, in two classes. George Adam Guediug [ Guething ] and 
Samuel Becker are appointed leaders. They are to meet alternately 
at the church and at Conrad Schnaebeli's [Schnebley, or Suavely], 
or wherever else the leaders may direct. 

The ground and object of these meetings is to be, that those thus 
united may encourage one another, pray and sing in unison, and 
watch over one another's conduct. At these meetings they are to be 
especially careful to see to it that family worship is regularly main- 
tained. All those who are thus united are to take heed that no 
disturbances occur among them, and that the affairs of the congre- 
gations be conducted and managed in an orderly manner. 

1 The reader is here referred to Dr. Drury 's Life of Otterbein, pp. 194-202, where 
the entire series of minutes appears. They are reprinted from a translation 
of Rev. Dr. J. H. Dubbs, published by him in the Reformed Quarterly. 



128 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Resolved to meet again on the first Sunday in October, at D. 
Schreiber's. Done on the date above mentioned. 

W. Otterbein. 

B. SCHWOPE. 

The second meeting was held on the date and at 
the place named in the previous minutes. A further 
organization of classes is the principal feature of interest. 
The minutes of this meeting are signed by all the above- 
named ministers, six in number, Mr. Otterbein's name 
standing first, and Mr. Schwope's last, as secretary. The 
third meeting, the minutes of which follow, was held at 
Frederick City. The record is chiefly that of reports from 
the several charges. 

Fredericktown, June 12, 1775. 

In the name of our blessed Lord. Amen. 

We, William Otterbein, William Hendel, Frederick Henop, Jacob 
Weimer, Daniel Wagner, and Benedict Schwope, have met in this 
town, according to the resolution passed at our meeting held last 
October at Pipe Creek, and after due examination the following 
was found to be the condition of the congregations or classes: 

1. The friends in this town are at peace, and continue their 
private meetings twice a week, besides regularly attending the 
service iu the church. 

2. The friends at Pipe Creek are equally prosperous, appear serious 
in their conduct, and, it is hoped, derive a blessing from their meetings. 

3. Those at Sam's Creek are at peace, and appear serious. 

4. Those at Antietam are again at peace, after a slight disturb- 
ance, and meet on Sundays. 

5. Those at Baltimore are at peace ; but it is to be feared and 
guarded against that with their good order and regular meetings they 
do not take the appearance for the reality. 

6. Those at Sharpsburg remain in their previous condition. 
They hold meetings. There is no reason to imagine evil, but it 
might be wished that their condition were more prosperous. 

7. Those at Funkstown number only a few families, and as they 
live close together they meet according to their convenience. At 
this place progress is very desirable. 

9. The friends at Canawaken [ Conewago ] ( who were mentioned 
at our last meeting at Pipe Creek) continue to meet on Sunday, 
besides going regularly to church, as is our universal order. We 
have reason to hope for good results. 



MOVEMENT TOWABD A SEPARATE ORGANIZATION 129 

10, Certain friends in Hagerstown were interested, but none of 
them have come to our present meeting. We hope the Lord will 
kindle among them a flame of love and holy zeal. 

11. Resolved that our next meeting be held at Baltimore, on 
Sunday, October 15. 

Finally, we observe that since our first meeting, which is now 
more than a year ago, no disturbance has arisen in any one of the 
aforesaid classes and congregations — except a little trouble at 
Antietam, which has been covered up with the mantle of charity. 
In this may be seen the fruits of good discipline, in that at least 
three hundred souls have remained so long at peace, and we hope 
in the blessing of the Lord ; and may doubtless be preserved in this 
condition. We hope and desire that the Lord, the merciful, would 
daily add to their numbers. 

Written and done on the date aforesaid, by order of the United 
Ministers, by Benedict Schwope, Secretary. 

The minutes of other meetings following are in character 
much like the preceding. On October 15 a meeting was 
held at Baltimore, agreeably to the resolution previously 
adopted, and another followed, at Hagerstown, on June 
2, 1776. 

This meeting of June 2 is the last of which any 
minutes remain, and whether any succeeding meetings 
were held is therefore not known. There are indications 
that the unfavorable attention of the coetus began to be 
drawn toward this movement of the United Ministers. 
It would be quite impossible that the coetus could ever 
have regarded it with approval. And the fact that at this 
June meeting a license to preach was ordered to be granted 
to an applicant, a Mr. Henry Weidner, must doubtless 
have had the appearance of a schismatic procedure. The 
license was not signed by Mr. Wagner, who may, however, 
not have been present at the last meeting of the ministers, 
on June 2. It is also known that Mr. Wagner and 
Dr. Hendel, who were somewhat more conservative than 
Mr. Otterbein, began to have some apprehensions as to 
the results which might grow out of his more decisive 



130 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

measures. By this time also the War of the Revolution 
was in earnest progress, and it seems quite probable that, 
with the prevailing public excitement, the meetings were 
now suspended. At the June meeting another was ar- 
ranged for, to be held on October 20. It is probable that 
it was never held. 

There is good reason for believing that Mr. Otterbein 
cherished the hope of seeing this revival movement 
spread more extensively among the Reformed churches, 
as Pietism had done in Germany, greatly to the spiritual 
profit of the German churches. And he had the greater 
ground for such hope in the fact that some of the fore- 
most men in the coetus, notably Dr. Hendel, heartily 
cooperated with him. But such hope ended in disap- 
pointment, and the necessity soon appeared of giving 
attention to the work of revivals among the churches 
which he visited, without such formal cooperation. It 
must be borne in mind that this work, so far as the asso- 
ciation of the United Ministers was concerned, was all 
within the Reformed Church. Mr. Schwope alone, of the 
company of the United Ministers, remained in permanent 
cooperation with Mr. Otterbein. The other men, however, 
carried with them from this association a benign spiritual 
power that told during the rest of their lives upon their 
own work, conducted in the regular forms of the Reformed 
Church, in abundance of blessed fruits. Nor did the sever- 
ance of this union of consecrated men draw away the 
hearts of any of them from Mr. Otterbein. The most 
intimate and confidential of his earthly friends up to the 
end of his life was Daniel Wagner, and between himself 
and Dr. Hendel the relations of the highest esteem and 
warmest cordiality existed permanently. 

Of the laymen who were appointed leaders of classes, 
a number, as we have already seen, developed into 



MOVEMENT TOWARD A SEPARATE ORGANIZATION 131 

preachers, and these joined themselves to the work under 
Mr. Otterbein. Among these was Henry Weidner, who 
was licensed to preach by the United Ministers ; also 
Adam Lehman, Leonard Herbach (Harbaugh), Peter 
Kemp, and George Adam Guething. The last of these, 
however, had been a recognized preacher, unordained, 
since 1774. He was regularly ordained, as already 
mentioned, by Mr. Otterbein and Dr. Hendel, in 1783, a 
fact which may be accepted as proof of Dr. Hendel's 
continued friendly cooperation with Mr. Otterbein. 

In this part of our history have been traced more 
definitely the relations of ministers of the German Re- 
formed Church to the work which was developing under 
Mr. Otterbein, leaving out of view for a time the Mennonite 
branch of the general movement. The reader will see 
presently that during these years there was in progress 
among the Mennonites a steady and growing activity, 
and that in the first formal conference, that of 1789, to 
which attention is presently to be directed, their distin- 
guished leader, Mr. Boehm, and others of his brethren, 
were present to participate in its counsels. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE FIRST AND SECOND CONFERENCES 

I. THE FIRST FORMAL CONFERENCE 1789. 

It has already been seen that Mr. Otterbein was reluctant 
to take any steps that looked toward a separate church 
organization. His heart clung warmly to the church in 
which he was born and reared, the church of his devout 
and honored parents, and of his worthy kindred in the 
Fatherland. He was not insensible to the traditions of 
the Reformed Church in the several countries of conti- 
nental Europe, to its noble record of achievement in the 
historic struggles for religious and intellectual emancipation, 
especially in Germany, in Switzerland, and in Holland, 
and to the invaluable legacy of blessing it had nobly 
assisted in securing for millions. With the memory of 
all this noble record and these tender family associa- 
tions fresh in his cultured mind, he cherished for that 
church an afiPection which time could not obliterate, and 
which the sharp and ungenerous criticism of brethren 
who opposed him could not diminish. He was by 
natural organization conservative, and not a separatist ; 
earnest, resolute, steadily adhering to a purpose deliber- 
ately formed, but in no sense hasty or rash, never ready 
to enter, under the force of impulse, into an ill-advised 
movement. He possessed in an eminent degree those 
qualities which belong to a judicious and safe counselor. 
As the principal leader, therefore, of a great religious 
movement he manifested none of the reckless haste, the 

132 



THE FIRST AND SECOND CONFERENCES 133 

pronounced and often offensive self-assertion, which have 
too frequently characterized men who have appeared as 
leaders of schismatic movements — men who, if they could 
not have their own way in governing or controlling the 
affairs of a denomination, stood ready to rend in pieces 
and become leaders of factions. 

But while Mr. Otterbein entertained this high regard 
for the denomination in which he had been nurtured, he 
was profoundly conscious of the spiritual dearth which so 
broadly prevailed among its people, and, having himself 
entered into a better religious experience, he was earnestly 
desirous that others might attain with him the same grace. 
For years he allowed himself to entertain the hope that 
a genuine revival of a purer form of religion might be 
brought about in the church. There were encouraging 
signs of this, alike under his own ministry in his own 
and other congregations and under the ministry of several 
of his more devout associates. But gradually, through 
the spiritual inertia which so widely prevailed in both 
the ministry and the laity, and the rising tide of opposi- 
tion, which became more pronounced, this hope ceased to 
be entertained. And gradually, also, an overruling Prov- 
idence marked out for him the way and led him onward 
to that greater work which it was intended he should 
achieve. 

In the progressive development of the work it became 
necessary to supply many of the newly formed congre- 
gations with lay preaching. Some of the preachers were 
the men who had been previously appointed as the leaders 
of classes ; others were young or older men in whose hearts 
God had awakened a deep interest in the salvation of 
their fellow-men. Generally they were men of limited 
education, but the fires of a true and warm spiritual life 
burned within them, and in their plain, simple, and earnest 



134 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

way they declared the power of the gospel to save. Many 
of thera continued to pursue their secular callings, giving 
their Sabbaths and some of the week-day evenings to 
the preaching of the word. During certain times of the 
year they also made journeys, frequently quite extended, 
to engage in this sacred work. Others among them gave 
themselves entirely to the work of the ministr}^, preaching 
on every Sabbath and usually several times during the 
week. 

For a series of years these men pursued their w^ork under 
the general direction of Mr. Otterbein and Mr. Boehm. 
"Great meetings" (grosse Versammlungen) continued to be 
held, at which the ministers were usually present in 
considerable numbers. These w^ere occasions of greatly 
prized spiritual reunion, and preachers and people gladly 
availed themselves of them, often traveling long distances 
to attend them. They also afforded opportunities for 
counsel between the ministers, and here, and elsewhere 
as occasion served, Mr. Otterbein and Mr. Boehm were 
accustomed to outline the work to be done by the ministers 
who received their instructions from them. But the time 
came when it seemed desirable that a more definite and 
systematic method of procedure should be adopted, and 
when the ministers who were to serve the various churches 
should not only perform the service that was appointed 
to them, but should more directly share the responsibility 
of the work. It was with this purpose in view that a 
call was issued inviting all the ministers to assemble for 
a council, or conference, the first formal and definitely 
organized conference of the ministers of the churches 
which were afterward to become known as the United 
Brethren in Christ. 

The conference convened in Mr. Otterbein's parsonage, 
in the city of Baltimore. Fourteen ministers were recog- 



THE FIRST AND SECOND CONFERENCES 135 

nized as members, of whom seven were present, and the 
same number absent. The names of those present were : 
Wilham Otterbein, Martin Boehm, Henry Weidner, George 
A. Guething, Christian Newcomer, Adam Lehman, John 
Ernst. Those absent were : Benedict Schwope, Henry 
Baker, Simon Herre, Frederick SchaefFer, Martin Crider, 
Christopher Grosch, Abraham Draksel. 

An analysis of these hsts shows that of the seven men 
present at the conference five were of Eeformed ante- 
cedents, and two of Mennonite. Of those absent four 
were Reformed, two Mennonite, and one Moravian. 

The reader will pause here to look in for a few moments 
upon this small company of earnest, spiritual men, seated 
together for important counsel in the plainly furnished 
room of the old Otterbein parsonage. The central figure 
among them, the man to whose wise words all gladly defer, 
is Mr. Otterbein himself. Mr. Otterbein is now about sixty- 
three years of age, and in the full maturity of sound 
judgment and ripened purpose. Thirty-seven years have 
passed since he began his ministerial work in America, 
years of earnest toil for the best spiritual fruits. It is 
about twenty-three years since his first meeting with 
Martin Boehm, and fifteen since he entered upon the 
pastorate of the independent church in Baltimore. Next 
to him in ripeness of experience and safe counsel is Martin 
Boehm, still wearing the plain garb of his Mennonite 
brethren, and still possessing the genial and sweet Christian 
temper which characterized him in his earlier life. He 
is in age about one year the senior of Mr. Otterbein, and 
has been in the ministry about thirty years. More than 
ten years previous he had been disfellowshiped by his 
brethren because they could not understand the new 
spiritual life which he loved, and the gospel of a true 
conversion and conscious salvation which he preached. 



136 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Here also we find the earnest, laborious, and eloquent 
Guething, who had left the school-room and quarries of 
Antietam to hew out living stones for the beautifying 
of God's temple. Of Christian Newcomer, to become, after 
Otterbein and Boehm, a bishop in the Church, a future 
word is to be spoken. 

We can readily understand that the sessions of these 
men are characterized by much earnest prayer. A great 
work has gradually developed under their hands, and 
many souls now look to them especially for the bread 
of life. Much opposition has been encountered, alike by 
the preachers and the people. Their methods have been 
derided, and in numerous instances they have been 
excommunicated from the fellowship of those whom they 
held dear. Ecclesiastical, social, and family ostracism 
has set its ban against many of them, often with much 
bitterness. Gradually the people have been gathered into 
flocks, and these men, with their absent brethren, have 
become shepherds over them. The time has come when 
some forward step must be taken, not only in more 
systematically organizing the methods of supply for 
preaching, but in determining upon some formal bond 
of union by which the scattered societies shall be brought 
into a closer recognition and fellowship. 

Questions of the most serious import must have pre- 
sented themselves at this conference for consideration. We 
can scarcely doubt that the question of organizing a 
church, a new member in the then more limited family 
of Protestant denominations, was introduced. But if so, it 
was not clearly resolved upon. The action they took 
would in some respects bear the interpretation, but it does 
not appear that they applied the name church to the 
compact which they formed. It is certain that they did 
not adopt for it a name, nor did they bring to completion 



THE FIRST AND SECOND CONFERENCES 137 

various features that are essential to a definite church 
organization. All this, in more distinct form, was left 
for the Conference of 1800, when a name was adopted, 
and the fuller essentials for an organized and progressive 
church life were provided. 

And yet when one reflects upon the action which was 
taken, of a two-fold character, namely, the adoption of a 
distinct confession of faith and of a series of disciplinary 
rules, it is difficult to resist the conviction that here — 
whether these men so intended it or not — there was 
actually formed a church. It is not of consequence that 
the Confession is brief, or that the Rules of Discipline leave 
much ground to be covered. The Confession is compre- 
hensive and embraces the most vital points of our Christian 
faith, and the rules adopted, simple as they are, were 
sufficient for the requirements of the time. Nor does the 
failure to adopt a name constitute a barrier to regarding 
the organization as a church. The early Christian church, 
organized by the Lord himself and his apostles, was not 
known by a definite name until years afterward, when "the 
disciples were called Christians first in Antioch," and the 
confession of faith and rules of discipline were not any 
more definitely outlined than were these of this humble 
conference. 

The brethren of this Conference of 1789 doubtless 
builded more wisely and greater than they knew. Their 
work was germinal indeed, and there was to be further 
development before all things could be provided for ; but 
here the foundations were laid, and the work moved for- 
ward with a greater measure of independence than before. 

II. THE FIRST CONFESSION OF FAITH. 

This instrument, adopted by this initial conference of 
ministers, is entitled "The Doctrine of the United Brethren 



138 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

in Christ," tlie title, however, being not a part of the 
original draft. It is comprehended in five articles, as 
follows : 

AeticIjE 1. In the name of God we confess before all men, that 
we believe in the only true God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; 
that these three are one; the Father in the Son, the Son in the 
Father, and the Holy Ghost equal in essence with both; that this 
God created heaven and earth and all that in them is, visible as 
well as invisible, and sustains, governs, protects, and supports the 
same. 

Abt. 2. We believe in Jesus Christ; that he is very God and 
man, Saviour and Redeemer of the whole world; that all men 
through him may be saved if they will; that this Jesus suffered 
for us; that he died and was buried, rose on the third day, ascended 
into heaven, and that he will come again, at the last day, to judge 
the living and the dead. 

Art. 3. We believe in the Holy Ghost; that he proceeds from 
the Father and the Son; that we through him must be sanctified 
and receive faith, thereby being cleansed from all filthiness of the 
flesh and spirit. 

Abt. 4. We beUeve that the Bible is the w^ord of God; that it 
contains the true way to our souls' well-being and salvation; that 
every true Christian is bound to acknowledge and receive it, with 
the influences of the Spirit of God, as his only rule and guide ; and 
that without repentance, faith in Jesus Christ, forgiveness of sins, 
and following after Jesus Christ, no one can be a true Christian. 

Aet. 5. We believe that the doctrine which the Holy Scriptures 
contain, namely, the fall in Adam and salvation through Jesus 
Christ, shall be preached and proclaimed throughout the whole 
world. 

We recommend that the outward signs and ordinances, namely, 
baptism and the remembrance of the Lord in the distribution of 
the bread and wine, be observed; also the washing of feet, where 
the same is desired. ^ 

This creed, so clear and beautiful in its expression, and 
so comprehensive in its grasp, is most manifestly the 
production of Mr. Otterbein's discriminating mind and pen 
— not indeed in the sense of the creation of its materials, 
but in the judicious selection and arrangement of its 

^ Confession Prior to 1815, translated by Prof. A. W. Drury, D.D., in DiscipUnes 
of the United Brethren in Christ, 18U-18U1, p. 3. 



THE FIBST AND SECOND CONFEBENCES 139 

elements. Brief as it is, it is worthy to take rank among 
the foremost creeds of Christendom. The reader who is 
acquainted with the German language will be pleased to 
see it in its original form. Here its strength of diction 
and its simplicity and directness are even more apparent 
than in our translation : 

Die £e!?re ber Peretntglen Bruber in Cl^rifto. 

SlrtiJel 1. ^m '^omtn ®otte§ Be!ennen mx t)or ^ebermann, baf; roir 
glauben (m 'ii^n einigen raa^ren ©ott, 3Sater, ©o^n unb §ei(igen ©etft, "aa^ biefe 
brei etn§ ftnb, ber 33ater \m ©ol^n, ber <So§n tm SSater unb ber l^etUge ©eift gtei- 
d^en SBefeng tnit beibett, ba^ biefer ©ott, ^imtnel unb ©rben, unb alleg raa^ barin= 
tien ift, foroo^l fic^tbar aB unfic^tbar, erfc^affen \)(xi, unb alleg traget, regieret, 
fd^iilet unb erl^att. 

21 r t. 2. 2Btr gtauben an S^fum ©l^riftum, ba^ er raa^rer ©ott unb SJJenfci^, 
§eilanb unb S^erfo^ner ber gangen 2Belt ift, ba^ alle 3[>tenfc^en burc^ i^n felig n)er= 
ben fonnen, raenn fie rcoUen, ba^ biefer S^fug fiir ung gelitten, geftorben ux<ti be- 
graben, am britten ^age rcieber auferftanben, gen ^intmel gefafiren unb am jiingften 
iage toieber !ommen roirb gu ric^ten bie Sebenbigen unb bte ^oten. 

31 r t. 3. SBir glauben an "iien l^eiligen ©etft, ba^ er vom 3Sater unb ©o^n 
au^gefje, ba^ rair burd^ tl^n tniiffen ge^eiligt rcerben, unb hen ©lauben ertangen, 
tDeldier ung reiniget von alter 33eflecfung beg f^Ieifd^eg unb beg ©eifteg. 

21 r t. 4. aSir glauben, ba^ bie S3ibe( ©otteg SBort ift, ba^ fie ben ma^ren 3Beg 
gu unferm ©etent)eit unb ©elig!eit ent^alte, ba^ ein jeber raal^rer ©l^rift, biefelbe mit 
ben ®infliiffen be§ ©eifteg ©otteS, eingig unb alteingu feiner 9iirf)tfc^nur ne^men miif; 
fe unb bag of)ne 33u^e unb ©lauben an ^efum ©^riftum, SSergebung ber ©iinben unb 
^liad^folge ^efu (S^rifti, ^f^iemanb ein raa^rer (Shrift fein fann. 

2t r i 5. 2Sir glauben, ba^ bie Se^re, roelc^e bie l^eilige ©cf)rif t ent^att, namtic^ 
t)er f^all in 2lbam unb bie ®rrettung burc^ ^efum (E^riftum ber gangen SBelt gepre= 
biget unb t)er!unbiget rcerben foKte. 2leu^ere ^eic^en unb S3erorbnungen, namlid^ 
t)ie S^aufe unb "iia^ ©ebad^tnig beg ^errn, in 2lugtei(ung beg ^robeg un)) SBeing, 
njerben anempfof)len, roie aud^ bag f^^u^raafd^en, rao eg begel^ret rairb. ^ 

Upon this instrument Professor Drury, in his Life of 
Otterbein, makes the following just remarks : " The Con- 
fession may be taken as a reflection of Mr. Otterbein's 
mind, and when regarded as a whole it is simple and 
majestic. It impresses by what it includes, by what it 

^A manuscript copy of this Confession is preserved in the vaults of the 
United Brethren Publishing House at Dayton, Ohio. It is published in 
Disciplines of the United Brethren in Christ, 181U-18A1. 



140 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

omits, and by its doctrinal savor. It rests on the Apostles' 
Creed and the New Testament, and adds only those 
necessary specifications in regard to the application and 
mission of the gospel that even the simplest of the later 
creeds have been compelled to include. The closing part 
grew out of a particular exigency. The glory of the creed 
is, that while Mr. Otterbein drew it together he did not 
make it ; that while he used old material he appreciated 
every word and element that he employed, and that he 
was biased neither by obsolete forms nor by recent con- 
troversies. The creed might be called a working creed — 
a fit creed for a revival people, whose defense is rather 
in the heart than in the armor." ^ 

The "particular exigency" to which Dr. Drury alludes 
in the above, has reference to important differences in 
beliefs and practices as between the Reformed and Men- 
nonite churches. The Mennonite Church, as we have seen, 
practiced only adult baptism, while the Reformed baptized 
also infants. The Mennonites practiced feet-washing, ele- 
vating the "example" of Jesus, as narrated in John 13: 
1-17, to the character of a sacrament, ordained for perpetual 
observance in the church. The Reformed regarded it as 
only an example, and not as an ordinance. The Mennonites 
entering into this new compact could not at once abandon 
their traditional practices in these things, neither could 
the Reformed adopt them. But they could from each side 
consent to an unhindered freedom to practice or not to 
practice, according to the dictates of their own sincere 
convictions, traditions, or education, and this they did most 
heartily and in the spirit of a true brotherly and Christian 
concession. No particular mode of baptism, nor any speci- 
fied age of subjects, was commanded, and the washing of 
feet was commended when it was desired. 

1 Life of Otterbein, p. 232. 



THE FIRST AND SECOND CONFERENCES 141 

The spirit of this concession is in strict harmony with 
the apostohc feehng, the reflection of the same broad 
charity and generous forbearance which gave so rich a 
glory to the first church council in Jerusalem.^ And 
equally is it in accord with the spirit of concession as 
set forth in that earliest of church manuals, the recently 
discovered "Didache," or "Teaching of the Twelve 
Apostles." Referring to the practice of baptism, this 
venerable document says : "As regards baptism, baptize 
in this manner : Having first given all the preceding 
instruction, baptize into the name of the Father, and of 
the Son. and of the Holy Spirit, in living [running] 
water. But if thou hast not living water, baptize into 
other water; and if thou canst not in cold, [then] in 
warm. But if thou hast neither [neither running nor 
standing, neither cold nor warm water, in sufficient 
quantity for immersion], pour water on the head three 
times, into the name of Father, and Son, and Holy 
Spirit." 2 

It is cause for sincere gratification that this spirit of 
mutual forbearance and concession, thus appearing in this 
early instrument of the organic life of the United Brethren 
Church, still remains as a characteristic of the denomina- 
tion. No attempt has ever been made to limit the freedom 
thus established by the fathers of the Church. The rite 
of baptism may be administered by sprinkling, or by 
immersion, as was perhaps generally done in the early 
church, or by pouring, as permitted by the "Didache." 
The washing of feet is not regarded by the Church as 
an ordinance, as it was not from the beginning ; but re- 
membering the "example" of Jesus in teaching his 
apostles a lesson of service, it is permitted without 

1 Acts 15. 

2 The Oldest Church Manual^ Called the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, by 
Dr. Philip Schaff, p. 30. 



142 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

hindrance to the few remaining among us who still cling 
to the customs of their Mennonite fathers. 

III. THE DISCIPLINARY RULES. 

Passing from these observations on tlie Confession 
adopted by the Conference of 1789, the "Disciplinary 
Rules" which were approved at the same meeting, and 
which, Mr. Spayth says, "governed the Church from the 
first conference held in Baltimore, 1789, up to 1815," that 
is, up to the time of the first General Conference, are also 
here presented. The following are the rules, as translated 
from the original by Mr. Spayth. The reader will observe 
that, in a condensed form, they are based upon the rules 
adopted four years previously for the Otterbein Church 
in Baltimore. 

{a) That no one, be he a preacher or lay member, can be a 
member of this Church, who should be found to lead an offensive 
life. ( I. Tim. 3 : 1-3 ; I. Cor. 5 : 13. ) 

(&) To keep the Sabbath day holy, and attend divine worship. 

(c) To attend class- or prayer-meeting once a week. 

{d) That no one be received into the Church who is not resolved 
to flee the wrath to come, and by faith and repentance to seek his 
salvation in Christ, and be resolved willingly to obey the disciplinary 
rules which are now observed for good order; yet always excepted 
[provided] that such rules are founded on the Word of God, as the 
only unerring guide of faith and practice. 

( e ) That a neglect of class- and prayer-meetings by any one, after 
being twice or thrice admonished, without manifest amendment 
(sickness or absence from home excepted), excludes such from the 
Church. 

(/) Every member to abstain from all backbiting and evil speak- 
ing (I. Pet. 2:1; Jas. 4: 11). The transgressor in the first instance 
to be admonished privately, but the second time to be reproved in 
the class-meeting. 

{g) Forasmuch as the difference of people and denominations 
ends in Christ (Rom. 10: 12; Col. 3 : 11 ), and availeth nothing, but a 
new creature (Gal. 6:13-16), it becomes our duty and pri^dlege, 
according to the gospel, to commune with and admit professors of 
religion to the Lord's table without partiality. 



THE FIRST AND SECOND CONFERENCES 143 

( h ) That each member strive to lead a quiet and godly life, lest 
he give offense, and fall into the condemnation of the adversary 
(Matt. 5:14-16). 

{i) All offenses between members shall be dealt with in strict 
conformity to the precepts of our Lord (Matt. 18: 15-18). 

( /) Should a preacher or elder be accused of any known immo- 
rality, and upon the testimony of two or three creditable witnesses, 
he being present, the charge be proven against him, he will be 
immediately suspended, and until he gives proof of true repentance, 
and makes open confession to the society, he remains excluded from 
the Church. The same rule shall be observed against members of 
the Church who shall be found guilty of immoral conduct ( I. Cor. 
5:11-13; I. Tim. 5: 20). i 

The reader will observe that the word ''church" occurs 
several times in these rules. If, therefore, the translation 
conveys the true original intent, the thought of organ- 
izing a church must then have been present in the minds 
of the conference. It may be well, however, to remember 
that the word Gemeinschaft, or society, was the term in 
common use, a word signifying an association, but not 
necessarily a church. The word "society" appeared for 
a long time in the Discipline, but has gradually been 
displaced by the word "church." 

Mr. Spayth's remark that these rules governed the 
Church up to 1815 is, in the main, yet perhaps not 
strictly, accurate. In general, we are to accept his state- 
ments as authoritative, he having been the earliest his- 
torian of the Church, contemporaneous with much of 
which he writes, and a member of the first General Con- 
ference, in 1815. Anything he has written is to be held 
as doubtful only where clear evidence, as derived from 
original manuscripts, is to the contrary. In the present 
instance it is apparent that there was some growth or 
development from this early simple form, beginning per- 
haps about 1809. In 1813 a definitely formed book of 
discipline seems to have been in existence, since, at a 

1 Spayth's History, pp. 145-147. 



144 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

session of the Eastern Conference held that year, it was 
resolved "that the Confession of Faith and the Christian 
Discipline of the United Brethren in Christ be printed." 
Up to this time the Confession of Faith and Rules of 
Discipline existed only in manuscript form.^ 

IV. THE SECOND FORMAL CONFERENCE 1791. 

In the year 1790 no formal conference was held. This 
was not deemed necessary, as the early conferences were 
not held for the purpose of arranging and assigning to 
ministers the work to be done. That end was usually 
accomplished at the "great meetings," or at two-day 
meetings, or whenever several ministers happened to be 
present at any assemblage with the leaders of the work. 
The conferences seem rather to have been held for the 
higher purpose of mutual understanding as to the general 
basis of their proceeding. Gradually, without their having 
willed it, a church was forming under their hands. The 
ministers, as w^ell as the people, were brought together 
from different and widely varying communions. Their 
work was evangelistic, but numerous congregations separate 
from any other church relations w^ere formed. It w^as 
necessary that they should meet occasionally for con- 
sultation, and especially that the later accessions of younger 
men to their ministry should be led to a clear under- 
standing of the work they were engaged in. With this 
view a second formal conference was held, in the year 
1791. This assembly was held eight miles from York, 
Pennsylvania, at the home of Mr. John Spangler, who, as 
Dr. Drury remarks, "was a large land-holder and sub- 

1 For a full view of the early Book of Discipline of the Church, including 
the Confession and Disciplinary Rules, see the recently published volume of 
the "Disciplines of the United Brethren in Christ, 1814-1841," including the 
German originals and literal English translations, with an Introduction by 
Prof. A. W. Drury, D.D. The volume is one of highest value from many 
standpoints. 



THE FIRST AND SECOND CONFERENCES 145 

stantial citizen." In church connection he and his family 
were German Eeformed, but they had been swept in with 
the current of the great revival, and their sympathies and 
fellowship were with the ministers of the movement. 
Hence they gladly opened their doors to entertain the 
conference. 

At this conference were present William Otterbein, 
Martin Boehm, George A. Guething, Christian Newcomer, 
Adam Lehman, John Ernst, John G. Pfrimmer, John 
Neidig, and Benedict Sanders. The following ministers 
were absent : Henry Weidner, Henry Baker, Martin 
Crider, F. Schaffer, Christopher Grosch, Abraham Draksel, 
Christian Crum, G. Fortenbach, Daniel Strickler, J. 
Hershey, Simon Herre, J. Hautz, and Benedict Schwope. 
Thus we find twenty-two names as constituting the list 
of the ministers at this time. That there should be a 
rather wide disproportion between those present and those 
absent, is not a source of surprise, or indication of in- 
difference. The ministers resided in three different States, 
the modes of travel were slow and tedious, and since there 
was as yet no organized itinerancy no one was led to 
attend by any interest in the question as to where his next 
field of labor should be. 

No formal conference was again held until the year 
1800, the ministers meanwhile preaching here and there 
according to plans agreed upon at the various meetings, 
as already remarked. 



10 



CHAPTER VIII 

NEWCOMER AND ASSOCIATES 
I. CHRISTIAN NEWCOMER. 

It will be in order here, before passing, to take note 
of some others of these early laborers who were associated 
with Bishops Otterbein and Boehm in the founding of 
the United Brethren Church. Next to these two, with 
Guething, stands Christian Newcomer, the third bishop 
of the Church, who, in the constancy and extent of his 
travels, almost takes rank with Bishop Asbury, of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, of whom it might be said, 
with slight exaggeration, that he was seldom out of his 
saddle, except to eat, to sleep, to preach, or to hold a 
conference. 

Mr. Newcomer was, on his father's side, of Swiss descent, 
the family having come to America in the father's child- 
hood days. Their home was established in Lancaster 
County, Pennsylvania, in a community of Mennonites, 
of which society they were members. Here his father, 
Wolfgang Newcomer, was married to Miss Elizabeth 
Weller, who was also of the Mennonite Church. In his 
autobiography, or "Journal," Mr. Newcomer relates that 
they were devoted people, and that oftentimes he saw 
them kneeling together in silent prayer. In their family 
of eight children, three sons and five daughters, Christian 
was the second born of the three sons. His birth occurred 
on January 21, old style, that is, January 9, 1749, or 
three years before Mr. Otterbein's arrival in America. 

146 



NEWCOMEB AND ASSOCIATES 147 

The tenor of his hfe shows that he was a man of cheer- 
ful and sunny disposition, but he was also piously inclined 
from his childhood. He tells us that when he was very 
young the Spirit of the Lord strove with him. Like the 
boy Samuel, he did not comprehend the meaning of the 
voice, but in his heart he desired to live a pious life. 
Whenever he was in company with persons who were 
reputed to be pious, he felt rising within him a strong 
desire to be like them. He listened with eagerness to 
the conversation of older persons bearing on the subject 
of religion, and reflected with serious thoughtfulness upon 
what they said. 

Some of the experiences he relates are full of suggest- 
iveness for the present time, when conversions so often 
seem scarcely to reach the deeper springs of the heart. 
When he had advanced well toward maturity, he read the 
Holy Scriptures with deepening interest. Of this period 
he says : " In the meantime the grace of God continued 
to work powerfully in my heart. . . . Frequently did I 
endeavor to pray, in my ignorance of the plan of salva- 
tion ; willingly would I believe and persuade myself that 
I was one of the happy number which are saved. I soon 
made the discovery, however, that I still continued in the 
captivity of sin and Satan." An incident which shows 
the strong trend of his convictions and feelings at this 
time is thus related : " I remember once being in a field 
at work, when the grace of God wrought such powerful 
conviction in my heart that I went down on my knees in 
a hollow place in the field, crying to the Lord, and saying, 
*0 thou blessed Saviour, I will cheerfully believe in thee, 
for thou art my Redeemer, and I am the purchase of thy 
most precious blood.'" Then followed a conflict with 
doubt, and he was not yet consciously saved. 

These spiritual struggles continued for some time, when 



148 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

by and by he realized for a time unutterable peace with 
God. When darkness came again, he sought advice from 
a minister in the Mennonite Church. "He counseled 
me," he says, "to be baptized, to join the society, and 
take the sacrament. I took his friendly advice, ... bat 
all this did not restore to me the joyful sensation or inward 
comfort w^hich I had lost. True, I was not accused, nor 
did any person even insinuate anything derogatory to my 
religion, but I knew and felt a deficiency of something 
within." And thus several years passed, when at last he 
obtained the victory of faith, and was moved with an 
irresistible desire to communicate his experience to others. 
In this state he visited a Mennonite minister, to whom he 
"related with all the fervor of a new convert" the work 
of grace which had been accomplished in his soul. The 
minister, having no acquaintance with a like experience, 
expressed doubts about it all, and Mr. Newcomer returned 
to his home in sore temptation lest after all he might be 
mistaken, since this good man, in whose piety and wisdom 
he had the fullest confidence, could not coincide with him. 
Later on came another victory, when he resolved to visit 
the minister again. He found him lying on a bed of 
sickness, and soon, to his great joy, the minister referred 
to their previous conversation, and he found that the 
words he had spoken had proved "as a nail driven in a 
sure place." 

But now came the conviction that he should tell his 
neighbors and fellow church people of his experience of 
the grace of God in his heart. This meant a call to the 
ministry of the gospel of Jesus, and now there must needs 
be another great and protracted struggle before he could 
yield obedience to the high behest. Meanwhile, having 
entered into the marriage relation, he removed with his 
family to Maryland, and it was on a visit to the old home 



NEWCOMER AND ASSOCIATES 149 

and the old church in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 
that he made the first distinct public avowal of his new 
and blessed spiritual experience. The meeting in the 
church and his part in the service he thus describes : " I 
accompanied my friends to the meeting-house, not with 
an intention to say anything, but, on the contrary, with 
a resolution to be silent. Sitting for some time, listening 
with attention to the discourse and exhortations of several 
of their speakers, I could perceive distinctly that they still 
continued in the same ignorance and inexperience of reli- 
gion as they were when I left them. It now ran like fire 
through my bones ; I felt inwardly constrained to take 
up the cross ; and whereas brethren (namely, the Men- 
nonites) gave the privilege or liberty to speak, I dared 
not remain silent any longer. I arose with a sorrowful 
heart, and spoke with tears in my eyes to my old friends 
and acquaintances. I related to them, with all the ability 
in my possession, how I had oftentimes felt at meeting, 
when living yet among them ; candidly stated my expe- 
rience of the work of grace in my soul before I left them, 
as also what the Lord, in his infinite mercy, had done for 
me since my removal to Maryland. I also sincerely con- 
fessed to them that the Lord had required of me, before 
my removal, to warn them of their danger, and that until 
this day I had been disobedient to my blessed Master. I 
w^as so affected as to be hardly able to speak intelligibly ; 
but I stammered as well as I could, and endeavored to 
recommend to them the grace of God in Christ Jesus. 
Every person present was sensibly touched. All shed 
tears, as well as myself, and I have no doubt many were 
convinced that a form of religion, a religion that . . . 
is not felt in the heart, is insufficient to salvation. After 
discharging this duty I felt glad that I had been obedient, 
and an inward satisfaction rested on my mind." From 



150 THE UNITED BBETHREN IN CHRIST 

this time forward, Mr. Newcomer tells us, he was frequently 
asked to speak publicly on the subject of a deeper religious 
experience. To these calls he responded with hesitation, 
but in the spirit of obedience. 

It was apparently soon after this that he became ac- 
quainted with Mr. Otterbein and Mr. Guething, of whom 
he speaks as ministers of the Keformed Church, and w^ho 
preached frequently in the neighborhood where he resided 
in Maryland. Of these men he says : " Endowed by 
God, they preached powerfull}^, and not as the scribes. 
Their discourses made uncommon impressions on the 
hearts of the hearers. They insisted on the necessity of 
genuine repentance and conversion, on the knowledge of a 
pardon of sin, and in consequence thereof a change of 
heart and renovation of spirit. Many secure and uncon- 
cerned sinners were, by their instrumentality, awakened 
from their sleep of sin and death — many converted from 
darkness to light, from the power of sin and Satan unto 
God. They soon collected many adherents to and fol- 
lowers of the doctrines which they preached, from the 
multitude that congregated to hear them. Those persons 
who held to and embraced these doctrines were by them 
formed into societies, and w^ere called Otterbein's people, 
and the worldly-minded gave them the nickname * Dutch 
Methodists,' " which in those days w^as considered a name 
of reproach. 

Mr. Newcomer next informs us that, finding that the 
doctrines preached by these apostles harmonized with his 
own conceptions of the doctrines of Jesus Christ, he joined 
himself to them and their society. In order to take this 
step without creating friction among his Mennonite breth- 
ren, he formally withdrew from their communion. The 
date of this change of relation is not given, but as he 
was present at the historic initial Conference of 1789, in 



NEWCOMER AND ASSOCIATES 151 

the Otterbein parsonage in Baltimore, his connection with 
Otterbein and his co-laborers is probably to be placed 
some years before that event. Incidentally, he makes the 
remark that ''the work of grace now spread very rapidly 
among the German population in the States of Maryland 
and Pennsylvania. From every quarter resounded the 
call, 'Come over and help us.' The harvest was great, 
and the laborers few." 

Mr. Newcomer, like most of these earlier evangelists 
of the Church, followed a secular occupation during all of 
the earlier part of his life, and, indeed, after he gave him- 
self fully to the ministry of the word, and during the 
rest of his life, his earthly support came from his own 
material resources. His attention to the requirements of 
his business was often suddenly interrupted for days, and 
even weeks, at a time. Of this feature of his earlier 
ministerial work he makes this record : " It was frequently 
required of me by my brethren to attend meetings that 
were appointed by the people without my knowledge. 
On such occasions I often had to leave home and travel 
a hundred or more miles to attend a two- or three-days' 
meeting, which occasioned a considerable loss of time and 
neglect of my occupation. This also required a great 
degree of self-denial, and many a sore conflict. . . . But 
I had to submit, and be obedient to God and the breth- 
ren, . . . and I felt such a burning desire in my heart 
for the salvation of poor sinners that I gave all thoughts 
of self-interest as chaff to the wind by simply saying to 
myself that the salvation of one precious soul is worth 
more than the possession of the whole world." 

It was about this time that he was pressed to fill 
several appointments for a brother minister, thus meet- 
ing an experience that illustrates his character alike for 
fidelity and shrinking bashfulness. He started early and 



152 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

was in time to meet an afternoon appointment. When 
his service closed, a colored man brought a request to him 
to visit a young lady who was supposed to be dying. The 
place was two miles distant. On reaching the place, he 
was ushered into a rich man's elegant mansion. He found 
the young lady very ill, with apparently no possible hope 
of recovery, and the parents and friends w^eeping about 
her couch. He spoke to her, but in her extremity she 
was unable to answer him. He then sang a few verses, 
and knelt in prayer. In the act of prayer, he tells us, he 
had such freedom and power as he had never before 
experienced. On rising, he bade her farewell, again 
commending her to God, with no thought that he should 
ever see her again in the present world, and then went 
on to reach an evening appointment. A few months later 
he had an appointment again to j)reach in the house where 
the colored servant had met him. On entering, the host 
informed him that his appointment had been transferred 
to another house, the home of the young lady to whom 
he had ministered on his previous visit. He hesitated 
greatly to go to this mansion of elegance and wealth to 
preach, and the more so since the request was made that 
he preach in the English language, of which he had but 
imperfect knowledge. But there was no other way than 
to go. In the preaching he experienced a special endue- 
ment of the Holy Spirit, and he declared the word with 
great freedom. His audience was strongly moved, and 
as he proceeded a lady arose and began to utter loud shouts 
of praise to God. To his great surprise and delight he 
presently understood that it was the same young lady 
whom he had visited in her sickness. The people present 
were greatly moved, and Mr. Newcomer had reason to 
believe that the meeting was blessed to a number of them 
in their salvation. 



NEWCOMER AND ASSOCIATES 153 

Mr. Spayth, who had the advantage of a personal 
acquaintance with nearly all of the early ministers of 
the Church, says of Mr. Newcomer: "He indeed was 
a chosen vessel of the Lord, as his subsequent labors 
most amply prove. Though in some respects less than 
Otterbein, Guething, or Boehm, ... we are justified in 
saying of him that the grace of God was not bestowed 
on him in vain, for he labored more abundantly, jour- 
neyed more, preached more frequently, and visited more 
extensively. He was just the man, by nature and by 
grace, for his place — without him the cluster would have 
been incomplete ; tall in stature, of a commanding figure, 
and a keen visage, a voice moderately strong, and if at 
times impeded for a moment by some natural defect, it 
but heightened the effect of his preaching, drawing the 
attention of the audience only nearer to the speaker, 
affording him an opportunity to draw the gospel net 
more effectually around them, and thus secure a larger 
draft. From first to last, and for many years. Brother 
Newcomer made good proof of his ministry, in all things 
showing himself a pattern of good works. . . . He was 
successful in winning souls to Christ, and unremitting in 
his labors, being often and suddenly called upon to attend 
meetings appointed without his knowledge, to reach some 
of which he had to travel one hundred and more miles. 
These protracted meetings, with all other meetings which 
he attended, required much time, neglect of business at 
home, beside traveling expenses ; and this was done without 
receiving the least remuneration. To do this required on 
his part much self-denial and sacrifice of domestic inter- 
ests, which brought him often into great straits and sore 
conflicts. But . . . his burning zeal would give him no 
rest, in season or out of season — neither in summer nor 
winter. He was sometimes heard to say, 'Well, this is 



154 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

hard, but the salvation of one soul outweighs it all — let 
me go.' Often he was compelled to make forced rides, 
to expose his person in the most inclement season of the 
year, and the stages of high water ; but none of these 
things could check him in his course. The writer, when 
traveling Susquehanna Circuit, in the year 1812, in the 
depth of winter, of cold and snow, had a meeting in Berks 
County. While preaching, Brother Newcomer's tall figure 
made its appearance at the door. I beckoned to him to 
come to the stand, but the room being crowded he 
remained where he was, and without leaving the door 
closed the meeting wdth a very impressive exhortation, 
and sang and prayed. I pronounced the benediction. 
The audience made a move to leave. Now was New- 
comer's time ; he shook hands with one and then with 
another, addressing some by name, exhorting all, young 
and old, with a voice and visage as spiritual and holy 
as if he had just come from the court of heaven. Many 
began to weep, and we had a gracious and powerful 
blessing. Thus often, when it was thought that he was 
far away, he w^ould come upon meetings unexpectedly 
and unlooked for, but his coming was everywhere and 
always hailed with joy. For of a truth God was with 
him, and had made him a blessing to the Church and 
to the people."^ 

We are to hear further of Mr. Newcomer, as bishop and 
leader of the host after the departure of the first chief 
shepherds, Otterbein, Boehm, and Guething, to their 
eternal rest. 

II. ABRAHAM DRAKSEL. 

Another found among the fellow-laborers of Mr. Otter- 
bein, though not present at the initial Conference of 

1 Spayth's History, pp. 67-69. 



NEWCOMER AND ASSOCIATES 155 

1789, was Abraham Draksel, who has been called the 
"silenced Amish preacher." Mr. Draksel was born in 
Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, in 1753. His parents 
were members of the society known as Amish, which 
derived its name from Jacob Amen, a native of Amenthal, 
Switzerland. They are a seceded branch of the Mennonite 
Church, but more rigid in the observance of outward 
forms, and insisting on greater simplicity in dress, the 
men, for example, being required to wear hooks instead 
of buttons ; hence also called the " Hooker Mennonites." 
Mr. Draksel was an obedient and faithful son, and 
became a member of the church of his parents. In 
due time he was encouraged to take part in preaching 
the gospel among them. This was according to the custom 
of the Mennonites, among whom there were no ordained 
nor paid ministers, members more gifted than others being 
chosen, usually by lot, to expound the word. But Mr. 
Draksel's preaching made a deeper impression upon his 
own conscience than it did upon the consciences of his 
hearers. He came to feel the need of a deeper heart 
experience and found his prayers answered. He began 
to tell his brethren of the grace he had found, urging 
them to seek a like blessing, this in the belief that they 
would gladly hear his words. On the contrary, opposition 
was awakened, and after being three times notified by 
the elders that he must desist from that kind of preaching, 
he was officially visited and informed that he was hence- 
forth silenced as a minister among them. This announce- 
ment was accepted by him without resistance, and he 
joined himself thenceforth to the ministers who, with Mr. 
Otterbein, were preaching a living gospel. 

Mr. Spayth, in speaking of Mr. Draksel, says : "His 
gospel labors proved a blessing to many, and spread much 
by his energetic efforts in the cause of God. In the year 



156 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

1804 he removed with his family west of the Alleghany 
Mountains, and settled himself near Mount Pleasant, in 
Westmoreland County. From here he made frequent 
visits into the State of Ohio. Brother Draksel's name will 
long live, and be cherished by many in and out of the 
Church. His life was blameless. His countenance was 
an index of the grace and spirit that dwelt within. With 
his fine silvery beard, he resembled the patriarchs of old. 
He was a pattern of piety, a lover of hospitality, a lover 
of good men. His end was joy and peace." ^ In the 
month of February, 1825, he entered into rest, at the age 
of seventy-two years, having been a minister in the United 
Brethren Church for forty -three years. 

III. JOHN JACOB PFRIMMER. 

Of two others of this early period, members of the 
second conference, that of 1791, Mr. Spayth has left us 
sketches from his personal recollections. The first of 
these was John Jacob Pfrimmer. ]\Ir. Pfrimmer was born 
in Alsace, France, in 1762, and w^as brought up in the 
German Reformed Church. He came to Pennsylvania at 
the age of twenty -six, in 1788, and soon after found the 
grace which Otterbein experienced during his ministry in 
Lancaster. Ere long he felt upon his heart the burden 
of a call to the ministr^^, and being well educated, and 
of sincere Christian life, his fitness for the sacred calling 
was readily recognized. He possessed strong intellectual 
gifts, was a fluent speaker, and declared the word in a 
deeply impressive manner. He had a broad knowledge 
of the Scriptures, and knew how to wield effectively the 
sword of the Spirit. He was fond of clinching his utter- 
ances with an emphatic "Thus saith the Lord," properly 
attributing all authority to the divine Word, He preached 

1 Spayth's History, p. 161. 



NEWCOMER AND ASSOCIATES 157 

the gospel widely, first in eastern Pennsylvania, then in 
the Susquehanna Valley, and afterward, in 1800, he 
crossed the mountains, and remained for some years in 
Somerset, Westmoreland, and Washington counties. In 
1808 he removed farther westward, finally settling near 
Corydon, in Harrison County, Indiana, where for a time 
he was associate judge of the court. He became a mem- 
ber of the Miami Conference, which was organized in 
1810, the first west of the Alleghanies, and which for a 
number of years embraced all the country west of the 
Scioto Valley. He was ordained in 1815, and was a 
member of the General Conference of 1825. His death 
seems to have occurred soon afterward, his demise being 
placed in the necrological list for the same year. His 
ministry, according to Mr. Spayth, was widely fruitful in 
blessed results. "As a result of his labors a church was 
built in 1818, in his neighborhood, on ground owned by 
his son. It was the first United Brethren church built 
west of the Ohio.''^ 

IV. JOHN NEIDIG. 

The second of these men whose names first appear in 
connection with the Conference of 1791, was John Neidig. 
He was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1765, but 
brought up in the neighborhood of Harrisburg, on a farm 
to which his father removed soon after his birth. His 
parents were of the Mennonite Church. Being seriously 
disposed, he was received by baptism into the same 
communion at an early age. His exemplary life and 
thoughtful habits commended him to the confidence of 
his brethren, and at the age of twenty-five he was chosen 
by lot, after the custom of the Mennonite Church, to be 
a preacher. With this responsibility laid upon him he 

1 Drury's Life of Otterbein, p. 235. 



158 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

felt deeply the need of a heart purified from sin, and of 
an abiding sense of experimental salvation. His earnest 
prayers for this grace were answered, and his soul was 
made to rejoice in the witness of the Spirit. And now, 
as did others before him who found a deeper significance 
in the gospel than the observance of external forms, he 
began to preach to his brethren the need of the same 
divine blessing. He insisted strongly on the doctrine 
of the new birth. This was a kind of preaching his 
brethren neither expected nor desired. In one instance, 
as related by Mr. Spayth, "whilst he was preaching and 
exhorting with much feeling, many in the congregation 
began to be moved, and some were crying loud enough 
to be heard. The old preacher [of the congregation] 
caught young Neidig by the arm, saying : ' Oh, not so, 
brother ! You press the subject too far ! ' To this he 
quietly replied : '■ There is no stopping this side of 
heaven. I will press it yet more earnestly.'" 

Mr. Spayth warms up to a fine glow as he proceeds 
with a personal description of Mr. Neidig. "Of all the 
brethren we have yet [sj)oken of] or may hereafter notice, 
Brother Neidig was the Nathanael ; a man possessed of an 
excellent spirit, meek, gentle, just, having a good report 
of them that were without ; as a steward of God, blame- 
less ; as a teacher, he w^as able by sound doctrine both to 
exhort and to convince the gainsayers. The virtues and 
the graces so essential in an elder in the church of God 
shone all around him with a clear and steady light ; . . . 
that light and those virtues and graces, shedding so much 
luster around his path, were never beclouded nor suffered 
a momentary eclipse by any false step on his part in his 
long and eventful life. His language was select and 
chaste, in the pulpit and out of it. . . . The sweetness of 
his voice . . . was like the chiming of silver bells. . . . 



NEWCOMER AND ASSOCIATES 159 

As a builder of the Church . . . the materials in his 
hands were gold, and silver, and precious stones. If a 
meeting-house or church was to be dedicated, be it 
Lutheran, German Reformed, or otherwise. Brother Neidig 
received the most friendly invitation to participate in the 
services and solemnities thereof. ... His fame was in 
all the churches." 

And yet this man, continues Mr. Spayth, "such as he 
was, be it remembered, or rather in charity be it forgotten, 
the Mennonite Church thrust out from among them, as it 
had thrust Boehm." 

Mr. Neidig gave his long life with unremitting diligence 
to the service of his holy calling, continuing to preach 
almost to the last hour of his life. He reached the 
seventy-ninth year of his age, and the fifty-third of his 
ministry, before he laid his armor down to enter into the 
rest of the faithful. But a few days before the Master 
called him a friend said to him, "Brother Neidig, will 
you allow yourself no rest?" With tenderness of heart 
he made the characteristic reply, "I do wish not to be 
found idle when the Lord cometh." 

Among others who were greatly esteemed for their part 
in the work was Christian Crum, who was born near 
Frederick City, in Maryland, but lived subsequently in 
Virginia, preaching extensively. He was of German Re- 
formed parentage. His death occurred in 1823. John 
Hershey, whose name is usually found among those present 
at the conferences, was of Mennonite birth. His home 
was at Hagerstown, Maryland, where his strength as a 
servant of the Church was fully recognized. 



Third Period— isoo-isis 

CHAPTER IX 

THE CONFERENCE OF 1800 

I. ITS IMPORTANCE. 

The Conference of 1800, considered in relation to the 
progressive development of the Church, is to be regarded 
as one of the most important in its history. While it 
did not bear the name, it yet possessed the essential char- 
acter of a General Conference, in the fact that it exercised 
the proper functions of such an assembly. One question, 
especially, of gravest import, was determined by it, such 
as could properly be determined only by a General Con- 
ference. It framed and settled in perpetuity the name 
of the denomination, a step which could only be taken 
by a body possessing the highest and final jurisdiction. 
Moreover, it elected bishops in a formal manner, another 
step which was not taken by either of the preceding 
conferences. But, as a simple fact, the conference was 
representative of the entire Church, so far as the body 
which had been collected and organized could be called 
a church. 

The conference was held on September 25 and 26, at the 
house of Peter Kemp, a little more than two miles west 
of Frederick City, Maryland. The house, a substantial 
stone structure, is still standing, and is a commodious 
and comfortable farm-house. Newcomer's Journal, in the 
usual form of the brief entries in his diary, makes the 

160 



THE CONFERENCE OF 1800 161 

following note: "25th. This morning we set out early; 
came to Brother Peter Kemp's, where the conference is 
to be held ; found Father Otterbein, Boehm, and twelve 
other preachers there. The conference was opened with 
singing and prayer by Otterbein and Boehm. The former 
gave a powerful exhortation. Then were all the brethren 
present separately examined respecting their progress in 
the divine life, their success and industry in the ministry. 
26th. This forenoon Father Otterbein preached from Amos 
4 : 12. Boehm spoke after him. After transacting some 
other business the conference closed with prayer." 

Such is the very brief and very incomplete form in 
which a most important statement is couched. It is un- 
satisfying, because we naturally want to know much more 
about this early conference than is now possible to be 
known, and we would anxiously look for information from 
the pen of one who participated in the proceedings, and 
who subsequently himself became so important a figure in 
the rising Church. But the statement, brief as it is, pos- 
sesses yet the greatest value as fixing the fact of the occur- 
rence of a historic event, and settling both its time and 
place. It also indicates with equal distinctness who were 
the recognized leaders of the conference, as of the great 
movement itself which this conference represented. Otter- 
bein and Boehm were found there by Newcomer when 
he arrived. The session of the first day was opened by 
Otterbein and Boehm, the former giving a powerful 
exhortation. In the forenoon of the next day Otterbein 
preached to the conference and Boehm spoke after him. 
These were the men who stood at the front of the move- 
ment, had been from the beginning its providential, though 
not formally elected, bishops, and now were in due order 
by election recognized in that office. 



162 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

II. MINUTES OF THE CONFERENCE. 

The minutes of the conference were themselves also 
recorded in briefest form, but contemporaneous sources 
furnish interesting confirmatory information. These min- 
utes, with those of the succeeding conferences, up to 1830, 
and including those of the General Conferences of 1815 
and 1817, are happily preserved, and are found in the 
fire-proof vaults of the Church Publishing House, at 
Dayton, Ohio. 

The ministers who were present at this conference were 
the following : Otterbein, Boehm, Guething, Pfrimmer, 
Newcomer, Lehman, Draksel, Christian Crum, Henry 
Crum, John Hershey, J. Geisinger, Henry Boehm, D. 
Aurandt, and Jacob Baulus. Those absent were : Schaffer, 
Crider, Grosch, Neidig, Abraham Mayer, G. Fortenbach, 
David Snyder, Adam Riegel, A. Hershey, Christian 
Hershey, John Ernst, of Pennsylvania ; Thomas Winters, 
M. Thomas, of Maryland ; Simon Herre, Daniel Strickler, 
John Senseny, Abraham Hiestand, and I. Niswander, of 
Virginia. 

The reader will be pleased here to see a transcript of 
the minutes of some of these early conferences. Of the 
first conference, that of 1800, the whole record, after the 
mention of the time and place and of the members present 
as just given, is embodied in four short paragraphs. They 
are recorded in the German language, of which the follow- 
ing is a translation : 

Every preacher spoke first in regard to his own experience, and 
then declared his intention to continue to preach, by the assisting 
grace of God, in full earnest, to the honor of God and the blessing 
of mankind. 

Resolved^ That two preachers shall be appointed to investigate 
the case of D. Aurandt, as to his authority to administer baptism 
and the Lord's supper. 

Resolved^ That annually a day shall be appointed on which the 



THE CONFEBENCE OF 1800 163 

unsectarian preachers shall assemble together and counsel how they 
can become more useful in their office, so that the church of God 
may be built up, sinners converted unto God, and God glorified. 

The conference was opened with prayer, the reading of a chapter, 
and a short exhortation by Brother Otterbein, and closed with prayer. 

III. THE PRESENT NAME OP THE CHURCH ADOPTED. 

Preceding this record and the other minutes which 
follow, is a brief prefatory remark, answering as a kind 
of title-page to the whole : " Here now follow what, from 
the year 1800, the United Brotherhood in Christ Jesus — 
until 1800 the United \_die Vereinigte^ — have done in their 
annual conferences for the government of preachers and 
church members." Upon the language of this preface it 
is proper to remark that the name die Vereinigte, meaning 
simply "the United," or "the Unified," was an abbreviated 
appellation for die Vereinigte Brilder, or "the United 
Brethren." Upon this name Dr. Drury, in his Life of 
Otterbein, has the following valuable note, quite worthy 
of being here transcribed : 

" Many other names were also in use ; as die Freiheits 
Leute (the Liberty People), die Gemeinde (the Church), 
die Allgemeine Brilder schaft (the General Brotherhood), 
die Neu Reformirte (the New Reformed), die Neu Mennon- 
iten (the New Mennonites), die Brilder (the Brethren), die 
Bohmische (Boehm's Followers), die Otterheinianer (the 
Otterbeinians), and die Unpartheischen (the Unsectarian). 
Some of these designations would include all of the socie- 
ties, and, on the other hand, some of them were used, in 
particular cases, in regard to societies that sustained only 
a fraternal relation to the United Brethren. There were 
also circles of Mennonites that were called by the name of 
the minister through whom they were awakened, as the 
Landis Leute (Landis' People), and the Lichtes Leute (Light's 
People, the followers of Felix Light, who began to preach 



164 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

between 1800 and 1803). Through the course of forty 
years these semi-independent Mennonite circles were break- 
ing into the widening circle of the United Brethren. 
Thus the Mennonite contribution was greatly enlarged. 
After the death of the pioneer preachers the lines on the 
Reformed side, owing to a reviving church-spirit, became 
sufficiently rigid to materially lessen the accessions from 
that quarter. In consequence of this waning importance 
of Reformed elements, some, by failing to look back to 
the earlier times, fail to recognize the real position and 
importance of Otterbein."^ 

It will impress the reader as a rather singular circum- 
stance that in these official minutes of the Conference of 
1800 no reference is made to either of the two transactions 
which gave to the conference its distinguished place in 
historic importance. The first omission relates to the 
official adoption of a name for the Church. We have 
just seen that the society, or collection of societies, was 
known by several designations, as might be suggested by 
local circumstances. But here a definite and distinct 
name was adopted which has continued to be the official 
name of the Church since that day, that is. The United 
Brethren in Christ. Have we, then, in the absence of any 
statement in the official record, any undoubted proof of 
this fact ? One source of proof is the distinct tradition 
which has been handed down from the fathers. There 
are many now living w^ho in their earlier life had 
acquaintance with those who saw Otterbein and the men 
who cooperated with him, as, for example. Bishop Joseph 
Hoffinan, — who was ordained by Otterbein, and succeeded 
him as pastor of the old church in Baltimore on the death 
of the Bishop, — the elder Bishop Henry Kumler, and others, 
whose testimony on this point was often repeated. But 

1 Life of Otterbein, p. 275. 



THE CONFEBENCE OF 1800 165 

there is also the written testimony of the Rev. H. G. 
Spayth, who was a member of the first General Conference, 
just fifteen years later, and secretary of that body. Mr. 
Spayth was personally acquainted with nearly all, if not 
all, of the men who sat in the Conference of 1800. Otter- 
bein, Boehm, Guething, Newcomer, Draksel, Pfrimmer, 
and others were to him familiar names. His statement, 
therefore, is to be accepted as final authority upon this 
point. That the reader may see Mr. Spayth's own lan- 
guage, the precise record is here reproduced : 

"At this conference, there being a good representation 
of the Church in general, the name 'United Brethren,' with 
the addition *in Christ,' was adopted. The appellative 
'United Brethren' had characterized the Brethren as a 
distinct body of Christians for a considerable time previous 
to the sitting of this conference. But it was suggested 
(and not without reason) that the name 'United Brethren,' 
when used in papers of record pertaining to the Church, 
in property, bequests, legacies, or otherwise, might raise 
a legal inquiry as to who or what church was intended 
by 'United Brethren,' forasmuch as the Moravians, under 
Count Zinzendorf, in 1727, had formed their first society 
under and by the name 'United Brethren,' or Unitas 
Fratrum. To avoid a misapplication in consequence of 
the similarity of the name, which it was now too late 
to change, 'in Christ' was added, and since then [the 
name] has been written and known as The Church of the 
United Brethren in Christ^'^ 

A third source of proof that the name was adopted by 
this Conference of 1800, is found in the Discipline of 1815. 
In the historical statement which precedes the body proper 
of the Discipline, the record is made : " In order now to 
labor in a truly useful and church-like way, the preachers 

1 Spayth's History, pp. 82, 83. 



166 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

saw themselves obliged to appoint a conference where they 
might come together to unite themselves properly ; because 
some were Eeformed, others Lutherans, others Mennonites, 
etc. They therefore appointed the 25th of September, 
1800, . . , for the conference. There came together 
thirteen preachers, who united themselves into a society 
which bears the name 'The United Brethren in Christ.' 
They elected William Otterbein and Martin Boehm as 
superintendents or bishops."^ 

The date of this Discipline is so near to that of the 
conference which adopted the name as to leave no possible 
room for doubt. Whatever, in the extreme brevity of the 
official minutes of the conference, may be omitted from 
their pages, the fact concerning the adoption of the name 
at that time is here fully established. A copy of this 
very Discipline, now so interesting and valuable because 
it is the first Discipline printed, is preserved in the fire- 
proof vaults of the Church Publishing House, at Dayton. 
It is printed in the German language, and bears on its 
title-page the imprint "Hagerstown: . . . 1816." 

IV. ELECTION OF BISHOPS. 

The second important step taken by this conference 
was the formal election of bishops. The Church had not, 
indeed, been without a bishop or bishops, as Mr. Spa}iih 
very justly observes. Otterbein, as chief, and Boehm, as 
almost equal associate, had exercised with the utmost 
care and fidelity the prerogatives of chief shepherds, 
though not elected by any actual vote to the office. 
Their function, like that of Peter among his brethren 
in the earlier apostolic days, had been fully recognized. 
But the time had come when it seemed proper by 
an actual official act to recognize them in the relation 

» See Disciplines of the United Brethren in Christ, 181!t-18Ul, p. 10. 



THE CONFERENCE OF 1800 167 

they had until now informally sustained, and accordingly 
these two leaders were at this conference, with due formal- 
ity, elected bishops. Here again the record made by Mr. 
Spayth may with propriety be quoted : 

"The next step the conference took was to elect two 
brethren to the office of superintendent, or bishop, and 
William Otterbein and Martin Boehm were elected. By 
this it is not to be understood that the Church had been 
without a chief. The office of superintendent had been 
exercised by Otterbein up to this time, — not by right of 
election or choice, but by the force of circumstances insep- 
arably connected with the rise and progress of the Church. 
All eyes had been directed to him to lead in counsel. The 
preachers, not one excepted, paid this deference to him. 
The care of all the churches had been resting upon 
him, and such were the love and obedience to him that 
if he said to one, 'Go,' he went, and if to another, 'Come,' 
he came."^ 

But other evidence comes from additional sources which 
fully sustains the record of Mr. Spayth both as to the fact 
and the significance of this election. The first is the 
statement found in the official minutes of the first General 
Conference, in 1815, whose members were largely the same 
men who were in the Conference of 1800. On this point 
see the paragraph just quoted from the first printed Dis- 
cipline, where the election of Otterbein and Boehm as 
superintendents or bishops is distinctly affirmed. 

Still another source of evidence is found in the writings 
of Henry Boehm, who was a member of the Conference 
of 1800. Henry Boehm, who, as a minister in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, rounded up a full century 
of life, was a son of Bishop Martin Boehm. He was 
attracted to the Methodist Church by the greater thorough- 

1 Spayth's History, p. 83. 



168 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

ness of its organization at that time, and was for many- 
years the traveling companion of Bishop Asbury. He 
began keeping a diary as early as 1800, and from the 
notes in this he makes in his later book of "Reminis- 
cences " the remark concerning this conference : " They 
[the United Brethren] elected bishops for the first time. 
William Otterbein and Martin Boehm (my father) were 
unanimously chosen."^ 

One more direct proof of the formal election of Otter- 
bein and Boehm as bishops will suffice. It is found in 
the official record of the minutes of the Conference of 
1802, as follows : 

^^ Resolved, That in case one of our superintendents — W. Otterbein 
and Martin Boehm — should die, another one in his place shall 
always be appointed. This is the wish of these two brethren, and 
the unanimous wish of all the preachers present." 

Thus passed into history this third formal assembling 
of the early ministers of the Church, so simple in all its 
characteristics, and yet so important in its historic signifi- 
cance. The Church was to bear henceforth a name which 
should distinguish it from all other religious bodies, and 
it was also organized for the more efiPective prosecution of 
the high mission to which God providentially appointed it. 

1 Boehm's Reminiscences, pp. 55, 56. 



CHAPTER X 

THE CONFERENCES OF 1801-1814 
I. THE CONFERENCE OF 1801. 

The Conference of 1801 was also held at the home of 
Rev. Peter Kemp, commencing on September 23, and 
extending through the 24th and 25th. Nineteen preachers 
were present. All those in attendance at the Conference 
of 1800 were present at this session, except Pfrimmer, 
Henry Boehm, Draksel, and Lehman. The new names 
appearing in the list of those present were Daniel Strickler, 
Peter Senseny, Frederick SchafFer, John Neidig, A. Mayer, 
D. Snyder, M. Thomas, A. Hershey, D. Long, Thomas 
Winters, L. Duckwald, Peter Kemp, and M. Kessler. On 
the first evening, says Newcomer in his Journal, a meeting 
of gracious power was held in a neighboring house. The 
mother of the family and several others were converted to 
God. Thus did these early ministers turn every occasion to 
good account in preaching Christ as the Saviour of sinners 
and in seeking to win them to eternal life. The second day 
appears to have been a busy one, many different topics 
being under consideration. Newcomer remarks upon the 
brotherly spirit manifested among the brethren. ^'General 
unanimity," he says, "of love prevailed." Of the third 
day he says : " Father Otterbein preached this day with 
uncommon perspicuity and power. His text was in the 
Epistle of Jude. The force with which he pointed out the 
greatness, the importance, and responsibility of the minis^ 
terial ofiice, will never be forgotten by me." 

169 



170 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

At this conference a resolution was adopted requiring 
each preacher, after preaching, to hold a conversation 
with those who might be seeking the conversion of their 
souls. The form of the resolution is an index of the 
common fact of those times, that ministers expected to 
find inquirers after almost any sermon. The prevailing 
type of the preaching looked toward the immediate con- 
viction and conversion of sinners, xlnother resolution 
was adopted which instructed the preachers to be brief 
in speaking, and to avoid all superfluous words in their 
prayers and sermons. If, however, the Holy Spirit should 
manifestly lead to greater length, it was equally their 
duty to follow the divine direction. 

Something was done at this conference toward forming 
more distinctly a regular itinerancy, and we find the 
names of ten men w^ho consented to travel as directed, 
as follows : Christian Newcomer, David Snyder, M. Thomas, 
Abraham Hershey, Daniel Strickler, Abraham Mayer, Fred- 
erick Schafier, David Long, John Neidig, and Peter Kemp. 

II. THE CONFERENCE OP 1802. 

At the Conference of 1802 there were thirteen ministers 
present. Mr. Newcomer, in his Journal, says : " October 
5th — To-day we set ofi* for our conference. Came to 
Peter Kemp's, where Father Otterbein had already ar- 
rived. Here we tarried together for the night. 6th — 
To-day our conference commenced at John Cronise's, with 
singing and prayer by Father Boehm. Otterbein ad- 
dressed the brethren in his usual manner." 

The entire minutes of this session are here given, as 
they appear in a liberal translation. It will be observed 
that the secretary has acquired a better idea of what 
conference minutes should be, and they are recorded at 
greater length. 



THE CONFERENCES OF 1801-1814 171 

Conference met at the house of John Cronise, Frederick County, 
Maryland, October 6, 1802. The following members were present: 
William Otterbein, Martin Boehm, Christian Newcomer, John 
Hershey, Christopher Grosch, Abraham Draksel, Henry Crum, 
Michael Thomas, Dietrich Aurandt, David Snyder, Peter Kemp, 
Mathias Kessler, George A. Guething. 

Conference was opened with singing and prayer. O Lord, let thy 
kingdom come, and thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. 
Grant to thy ministering servants grace to love thee above all. 
Amen. 

The preachers present were examined in regard to their character 
and usefulness. 

Resolved, To give to Valentine Huegel license to exhort. 

Resolved, To write to Pfrimmer that for the present we will have 
nothing to do with him. 

Brothers Ludwig Duckwald and William Ambrose, from Sleepy 
Creek, Virginia, arrived at conference. 

Conference met October 7. Sermon preached by William Otter- 
bein from Heb. 13: 17. Exhortation by M. Boehm. 

Brother John Miller obtained license from the conference to exhort. 

In regard to the keeping of a register of the names of the private 
members, it was found that out of twelve votes nine were against 
the motion. So, with consent, the matter was dropped. 

It shall be the duty of preachers to keep up prayer-meetings at 
their appointments, wherever it is possible. 

Permission was given to Ludwig Duckwald to baptize and ad- 
minister the Lord's supper, according to the Word of God. 

Some proposals were made in regard to the collecting of a certain 
sum of money for our poor preachers. 

Resolved, That if any of our preachers shall do anything wrong, 
it shall be the duty of the preacher next ( or nearest ) to him to talk 
to him privately in relation to the wrong. If he does not listen to 
him, or accept his advice, he shall take with him one or two more 
preachers; and if he does not listen to them, he shall be silenced 
until the next session of conference. 

Resolved, That G. A. Guething shall, next spring and faU, visit 
the congregations on Frederick Circuit. 

Resolved, That Christian Newcomer shall visit Cumberland 
Circuit twice during next year. 

Resolved, That Martin Boehm shall travel twice through Penn- 
sylvania, to the Susquehanna, to ascertain the state of the Church. 

Jacob Baulus and Valentine Baulus were appointed to make 
visits from house to house through Middletown, Fredericktown, 
and so forth. 



172 THE UNITED BRETHBEN IN CHBIST 

Hesolved, That in case one of our superintendents— W. Otterbein 
and Martin Boehm — should die, another one in his place shall 
always be appointed. This is the wish of these two brethren, and 
the unanimous wish of all the preachers present. 

Ludwig Duckwald and John Neidig received permission to ad- 
minister all the ordinances of the house of God. 

Bishop Otterbein closed this conference with an address 
and prayer. Newcomer, in his Journal, thus refers to the 
address : " He exhorted us particularly to be careful and 
preach no other doctrine than what is plainly laid down 
in the Bible ; that nothing less than a new creature in 
Christ Jesus will be acceptable in the sight of God ; that 
we should be ardently and diligently engaged in the work 
of the Lord ; and, lastly, that we should love one another, 
and for Jesus' sake to suffer and endure all things. He 
then dismissed the conference with a powerful prayer." 

Recurring again to the minutes, the reader will notice 
an apparently harsh judgment pronounced in the case 
of so efficient a man as J. G. Pfrimmer. The basis of 
this action was the kind of double attitude of ]\Ir. 
Pfrimmer for a time with respect to the United Brethren 
and the Reformed Church, that from which he came. 
Like Bishop Otterbein himself, but probably with less 
wisdom in his deportment, he retained in a degree his 
attachment to the church of his fathers. From some 
cause not made quite clear, the United Brethren confer- 
ence for a time withdrew its fellowship from him. At 
the session of 1805 this action was withdrawn, probably 
upon satisfactory explanation made by Mr. Pfrimmer, and 
he was restored to the full confidence and regard of his 
brethren and to his privileges as a minister in the Church. 

It will also be noticed as a fact somewhat singular that 
the conference should have declined, by a three-fourths 
majority, to make any register of the names of the lay 
members of the Church. This attitude seems to indicate 



THE CONFERENCES OF 1801-1814 173 

a predominating Mennonite influence in the early Church, 
since the E-eformed Church has always been careful to 
preserve the records not only of names, but of births 
and baptisms as well. This adverse feeling to such 
records seems to have been founded on the account of 
the sin of David in numbering Israel. In their extreme 
humility the Mennonite brethren were not willing to 
do anything that might wear the appearance of display. 
It was not, indeed, until many years after this that even 
an approach toward an accurate census of the Church w^as 
attempted. 

It will also be observed that "permission" was given 
to administer the ordinances, while nothing is said of the 
ordination of ministers. Up to this time, and until some 
years later, the rite of ordination was not administered, 
though Mr. Otterbein himself had been regularly ordained 
in the Eeformed Church in Germany. The ordinances 
therefore were administered, not by an unauthorized, but 
by an unordained ministry. In the early Methodist Church 
in America serious trouble had been for a time occasioned 
with respect to the administration of the ordinances, 
through the lack of a properly authorized ministry, until 
Mr. Wesley took it upon himself to ordain Dr. Coke, and 
send him to America to properly organize the churcli 
and ordain its ministers.^ The reader will further notice 
that license to exhort was given by the annual conference, 
that function being then exercised by the higher body, 
though quarterly conferences are frequently referred to by 
Mr. Newcomer. A further study of the minutes will also 
suggest that the itinerant work was beginning to be re- 
duced to more systematic form, thus beginning to displace 
the earlier method of each man forming a kind of circuit 

1 History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, by Nathan Bangs, D.D., Vol. II., 
pp. 154, 155. 



174 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

most convenient to liis own home, or going out to preach 
as incHnation might lead. 

III. THE COXFERENCES OF 1803 AND 1804. 

Of the Conference of 1803 Mr. Newcomer says: "Octo- 
ber 4th — We arrived at David Snyder's, where the 
conference is to be held. Father Otterbein had arrived 
before us. 5th — This day the session of the conference 
commenced. The preachers present were all examined, 
and their character and usefulness particularly inquired 
into. Many tears were shed on the occasion. Brother 
Grosch preached at night. ... I exhorted after him. 
6th — This forenoon Father Otterbein gave us as usual a 
very powerful and interesting discourse. Father Boehm 
followed him. In the afternoon the session of the con- 
ference was continued. At night Brother Christian Berger 
addressed the congregation." This conference was closed 
on the 7th. 

The Conference of 1804 was to be held at David 
Snyder's, but was adjourned, after a partial transaction 
of business, to the following spring, on account of a fatal 
fever very generally prevalent. Only five ministers were 
present, namely, Bishop Boehm, Schaffer, Mayer, Borts- 
field, and Newcomer. The session was opened in due 
form, and the letters sent to the conference were read. 
No more of the ministers arriving, an adjournment was 
made to the Wednesday preceding the Whitsuntide of 
1805, the conference to be held at the house of Jacob 
Baulus, near Middletown, Maryland. 

At this session the election of bishops should have 
occurred, but was postponed on account of the smallness 
of the number present. While there is no record of any 
action providing that the elections should occur quad- 
rennially, it is sufiiciently plain that such was the thought 



THE CONFERENCES OF 1801-1814 175 

of the preachers with regard to it. And since so much 
of what was done is left unrecorded in the minutes, as 
the election of bishops and the adoption of the name of 
the Church by the Conference of 1800, it is not improb- 
able that action may have been taken on the subject of 
elections without finding its way into the record. Such 
action may, indeed, have been taken when the first 
election was made. 

IV. THE CONFERENCE OF 1805. 

The Conference of 1805 possesses interest chiefly on 
account of the second election of bishops for the Church. 
It was held, as provided for by the previous adjournment, 
at the house of Jacob Baulus, commencing on May 29. 
Mr. Newcomer, in his Journal, has this minute: "29th — 
To-day our annual conference commenced at Brother Jacob 
Baulus's. Twenty-one preachers were present. Father 
Otterbein and Martin Boehm were elected presidents."^ 

The ministers present at this conference were : W. 
Otterbein, Martin Boehm, John Hershey, George A. Gue- 
thing, Daniel Strickler, Frederick Schaffer, Peter Kemp, 
L. Everhart, David Snyder, Christian Crum, Frederick 
Duckwald, William Ambrose, Jacob Baulus, Jacob Geis- 
inger, Christian Berger, Abraham Mayer, Christian New- 
comer, and George Benedum. The list contains eighteen 
names, lacking three of the number as stated by Mr. 
Newcomer. 

The following are the complete minutes of this conference : 

Conference was opened by prayer and an exhortation by Brother 
Otterbein. 

The preachers resolved to engage in the work of the Lord with 
more earnestness than ever before, by the assisting grace of God. 
O Lord, help thou us, thy poor and unworthy servants, for thine 
own sake. Amen. 

1 Newcomer's Journal, p. 134. 



176 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

The preachers were duly examined in regard to their moral and 
ministerial character. 

Brother Pfrimmer again received permission to preach the gospel 
among us. 

The following brethren arrived at the close of the session to-day : 
Ludwig Duckwald, Daniel Troyer, and Jacob Dehofl. 

Conference met May 30, at 8 a.m., and was opened by the reading 
of a chapter and prayer. 

Brother Xewcomer agreed to travel the following year through 
Maryland and a certain part of Pennsylvania, and Christian Crum 
agreed to travel through Virginia. Resolved that each shall receive 
forty livres [less than eight dollars] for his labors per annum. 

Resolved, That George A. Guething shall be present at the 
appointed great meetings \_grosse Versammlungen'] in Maryland, 
and on this side of the Susquehanna in Pennsylvania. 

It was recommended that Brother Guething should not reside in 
Hagerstown, and that Hagerstown should be regularly visited by our 
preachers. 

Resolved, That the preachers that preach only where they like 
shall receive no compensation for their services, and that it shall be 
their dutj^ to pay over to the conference the money that they may 
receive, for the benefit of the traveling preachers. 

Permission was granted by this conference to Brother Frederick 
Duckwald, from Sleepy Creek, and Brother Christian Berger, from 
Westmoreland, to baptize, administer the sacrament, and solemnize 
marriages. 

Resolved, That the next session of this conference shall be held at 
the house of Lorenz Everhart, on Tuesday before Whitsunday, 1806, 
and that a great meeting shall be held there, commencing the Satur- 
day following. 

The session of conference came to a close with the reading of a 
chapter and an appropriate exhortation. 

W. Otterbein. 
Mahtin Boehm. 1 

The minutes, it will be observed, are again silent as 
to the election of the bishops. On this point, however, the 
note in Newcomer's Journal leaves no doubt. His words, 
"Father Otterbein and Martin Boehm were elected presi- 
dents,"^ have already been quoted. This election would 

1 Drury's Life of Otterbein, pp. 283-285. 

2 Newcomer here uses the term "president" in preference to superintendent, 
or bishop. He uses the same word in reference to himself in 1813 and 1814. 



THE CONFERENCES OF 1801-18U 177 

doubtless have occurred in 1894 had the conference been 
regularly held. 

This conference became a memorable one to the brethren 
of that time as the last which their great and good leader, 
Bishop Otterbein, ever attended.^ Henceforth his words 
to the conference must be conveyed by correspondence. 
He was yet to live for a number of years, but the in- 
firmities of age began to tell on him to such extent that 
he could no longer undertake the necessary travel, or 
venture for a series of days from his home. While, there- 
fore, his gracious spirit was still with the preachers in their 
conferences, his benign face and stately presence were not 
hereafter to be seen among them. He was now in the 
seventy-ninth year of his age. By his side in this session 
sat that other venerable leader, the devout and always 
benignant Boehm, a little the senior of Otterbein, now 
in his eightieth year, but retaining a larger share of vigor 
in his advanced years. It was an interesting spectacle to 
behold these eminent leaders, ripe alike in years, wisdom, 
and grace, abundant in labors and the rich fruits of the 
gospel, presiding with fatherly affection over the devoted 
company of followers who had gathered about them. 
Forty years had passed since they first met, at the meeting 
in Isaac Long's barn, and recognized in each other 
chosen vessels of God for bearing to men the gospel of 
living spiritual experience. During every year since, they 
had met, either in the great meetings, or in conference 
sessions, to take counsel together over the great work in 
which the Lord had enlisted their hearts. Their counsels 
throughout had been characterized by a beautiful harmony. 
Mutual concessions as to modes of worship and practice 
had been made in a brotherly spirit, and no ripple of 
discord had through this long period disturbed the perfect 

iSee Spayth's History, p. 105. 
12 



178 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

harmony of their relations. And now at this last con- 
ference at which both were present, their personal example 
of unselfish Christian fellowship made a strong appeal to 
their followers to preserve the same spirit which was so 
beautifully expressed in the name which they adopted — 
United Brethren in Christ. 

V. THE CONFERENCES OF 1806-1810. 

A more rapid reference to several succeeding conferences 
must be sufiicient. The session of 1806, commencing May 
21 and closing on the 24th, was held at Everhart's, in 
Frederick County, Maryland. At this conference the ques- 
tion was asked, " Are all the preachers united in love ? " 
The answer is a notable one : " We are not only united 
among ourselves, but we also love all our fellow-men, 
whoever they may be." The name of Joseph Hoffman, 
one of the three later ordained by Bishop Otterbein, and 
afterwards Bishop Hoffman, appears for the first time in 
the minutes of this session. Plans of work for the year 
were arranged, including a number of great meetings. 

The Conference of 1807 met at Christian Herr's, in 
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Bishop Martin Boehm 
again presiding. A short and harmonious session was 
held. Plans for work were again arranged, and Isaac 
Niswander and Abraham Mayer were authorized to 
administer the ordinances. 

The Conference of 1808 was held at Abraham Nis- 
wander 's, in Virginia, commencing on May 25. After 
the usual examination of the moral and ofiicial charac- 
ter of the preachers, the conference considered the method 
of advancing men to the ministry. Reference has already 
been made to the annual conference's granting license 
to exhort. This preliminary was now referred to the 
ministers assembled at great meetings. The resolution 



THE CONFERENCES OF 1801-1814 179 

which was adopted contains the germ of all the later 
practice of the Church on this subject : 

Resolved, That those who desire to receive license to preach among 
us shall be examined at a great meeting ; and, if favorably reported, 
two of the elders shall grant them license for one year, at the end 
of which time they shall appear at the conference for examina- 
tion. In case they cannot appear at the conference, their license 
may be renewed at a great meeting. 

At this conference the name of George Hoffman appears 
for the first time. Some of the names of ministers are 
missed for successive sessions from the list of those present 
at the conferences. This was frequently occasioned by 
the long distances to be traveled over, as in the case of 
Christian Berger, who, with others, was laying the founda- 
tions of the Church west of the Alleghanies, in West- 
moreland and adjoining counties, and across the State 
line in Ohio. 

The Conference of 1809 was again held at Christian 
Herr's, commencing on May 10. Bishop Boehm presided. 
Newcomer, Guething, and Joseph Hoffman were among 
those present. The subject of a closer cooperation with 
the English brethren, that is, the Methodists, received 
much attention at this session. 

The Conference of 1810 was held in Frederick County, 
Maryland, at the house of John Cronise, commencing on 
June 6. Sixteen preachers were in attendance. Letters 
from Bishop Otterbein and others were read. The subject 
of a closer union with the Methodist Church was again 
considered, the question coming up in a memorial on the 
subject sent by Bishop Otterbein's church in Baltimore. 
A letter was also received from the Methodist conference 
relating to the same subject, and was answered in a 
fraternal spirit. The more careful supervision of the 
general work received attention, and provision was made 



180 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

requiring the older preachers to visit all the appointments 
on the diflPerent charges twice during the year if possible. 
In this supervision of the work by the more experienced 
preachers we have the foreshadowing of the regular pre- 
siding-eldership which was later provided for. The 
itinerant system was in a formative state. But few of 
the preachers were as yet unreserved itinerants. Nearly 
all were engaged in other occupations, but devoted much 
time to the preaching of the gospel, generally in the 
regions nearest their homes, but often making long jour- 
neys to encourage the work already established, or to 
push forward the outposts into territory not yet occupied. 

VI. OUGANIZATION OF MIAMI ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 

The year 1810 was especially emphasized in the pro- 
gressive history of the Church by the organization of a 
second conference. The tide of emigration had been 
carrying large numbers of people westward into the new 
State of Ohio, which, in 1802, had been admitted into 
the Union. Among these were a number of United 
Brethren families, and soon United Brethren ministers 
appeared among them to look after the spiritual interests 
of the scattered sheep, and to gather others into the fold. 
The settlements of these families were mostly in the 
middle, southern, and southwestern parts of the State, 
the latter in the IMiami Valley, at Germantown and other 
points near Dayton. The distance w^as too great for these 
ministers to attend the conference in the East, and the 
Miami Conference was accordingly organized. More will 
be said of this in an appropriate place farther on. 

VII. THE EASTERN CONFERENCE SESSIONS OF 1811-1814. 

The Eastern Conference of 1811 met on May 23, in 
Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, with twenty ministers 



THE CONFERENCES OF 1801-1814 181 

in attendance. Letters from a number of absent ministers 
were read. The question of compensation received atten- 
tion at this session, the salary for an unmarried man being 
fixed at eighty dollars a year. 

At the session of 1812, convened at Antietam on May 
13, there were twenty -two ministers present. The list of 
these is as follows : Christian Newcomer, Christian Crum, 
George A. Guething, Abraham Draksel, Abraham Mayer, 
Joseph Hoffman, Christian Smith, Isaac Niswander, David 
Snyder, Valentine Baulus, Jacob Baulus, Abraham Hershey, 
Lorenz Everhart, Michael Thomas, Jacob Weidner, Chris- 
tian Berger, Henry Hiestand, Henry G. Spayth, George 
Guething, Martin Crider, John Crider, and Jacob DehofF. 
The names of the venerable leaders. Bishops Otterbein 
and Boehm, have now disappeared finally from the list of 
those in attendance, and Guething is present for the last 
time. Boehm has been transferred to the church triumph- 
ant, and Otterbein, feeble in body from great age, is 
waiting for the call of the Master. The burden of respon- 
sibility is being shifted to other shoulders, which the 
Lord has been preparing to receive it. 

Appended to the minutes of this session of the confer- 
ence is a complete list of the ministers in the denomi- 
nation who were authorized to administer the ordinances. 
It will be remembered that these men, excepting Otterbein 
himself, were unordained, the Bishop, as heretofore stated, 
not ordaining any of his followers until in his closing 
days. Those so authorized were twenty-six in number, as 
follows : William Otterbein, Martin Boehm, George A. 
Guething, Christian Newcomer, Christian Crum, John 
Hershey, Christopher Grosch, Abraham Draksel, Ludwig 
Duckwald, John Neidig, David Long, Abraham Hershey, 
Christian Hershey, Abraham Mayer, William Ambrose, 
Isaac Niswander, Daniel Troyer, George Benedum, Peter 



182 THE UNITED BBETHREN IN CUBIST 

Kemp, Adam Riegel, Frederick Schaffer, Joseph Hoff- 
man, David Gingerich, Christian Berger, David Snyder, 
and Christian Smith. AUhough the name of Bishop 
Boehm appears in the Hst, his death had occurred in 
March previous to the sitting of this conference. 

It was not an unusual thing for a conference secretary 
in those earUer days to begin his record with a fervent 
invocation, or to close with a similar earnest prayer, thus 
indicating the devout spirit which prevailed among the 
brethren in their annual assembling. In the present 
instance the secretary closes his minutes, written out at 
considerable length, with these words : " Lord God 
Almighty, bless thy work ; grant thy Holy Spirit to all 
thy servants who preach thy truth ; fill them with pure 
love, with zeal and wisdom ; may they walk uprightly 
before thee, and honor thee in all their ways." 

The session of 1813 was held at the house of Christian 
Herr, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. There being 
no bishop present, Christopher Grosch was chosen chair- 
man. Eighteen ministers were present, and four received 
license to exhort. An address from the Baltimore Con- 
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, signed by 
Bishop Asbury, was received with much satisfaction, and 
it was ordered that Newcomer and Baulus convey a similar 
address to the next session of that conference, "in order 
to more and more effect a union between the two churches." 
By the union thus proposed was meant close friendly coop- 
eration, rather than organic consolidation. A committee 
consisting of Newcomer, Christian Crum, Joseph Hoffman, 
and J. Baulus, was appointed to confer v/ith a similar 
committee from the Albright Church (Evangelical Asso- 
ciation), concerning a plan of union between the two 
churches. This proposition meant more than simply 
friendly cooperation. Both churches using at that time 



THE CONFERENCES OF 1801-1814 183 

only the German language, and doctrine and general polity 
being so nearly identical, it was thought by many that an 
organic union might be effected to mutual advantage. 

Bishop Boehm having died. Christian Newcomer was 
elected bishop for one year. This was the last session of 
the conference at which the beloved Guething was present, 
his death occurring in June, only a few weeks after the 
adjournment. 

The conference convened in 1814 on May 24, at Hagers- 
town, Maryland. Twenty-one ministers were in attendance. 
The names of the absent ones do not appear in the minutes, 
but, owing to the long distances which they had to travel, 
portions of the three States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
and Virginia being included, it is probable that at least 
as many were absent as present, so that the number of 
preachers now may have been above forty. Six new 
names were here added to the list, among them that of 
Henry Kumler, Sen. Letters were read from Abraham 
Draksel and Christian Berger, both of whom were at that 
time laboring in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. A 
fraternal letter from the Baltimore Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church was also read. The letter 
expressed gratification with the amicable relations existing 
between the Methodist and United Brethren churches, and 
a desire for their continuance. 

The Otterbein Church in Baltimore having been tem- 
porarily supplied by Mr. Schaffer since the death of Bishop 
Otterbein, the congregation sent a request that the con- 
ference appoint for them a minister. As this congregation 
from its first organization held an independent position, 
its relation to the conference, while it was in thorough 
harmony with the United Brethren movement, was some- 
what difierent from that of other congregations. A com- 
mittee consisting of Neidig, Snyder, Baulus, and New- 



184 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

comer, was appointed to consider the request and make 
all proper arrangements. The committee appointed Joseph 
Hoffman, later Bishop Hoffman, for one year, with the 
understanding that if acceptable he might serve the con- 
gregation longer, but not beyond a period of three years. 
The arrangement proved agreeable to the church, and 
at the end of three years another minister was sent. Fol- 
lowing the agreement thus made, the pulpit of the church 
has been since supplied by the United Brethren conferences. 

There are no indications that any changes in the Con- 
fession of Faith w^ere adopted by the Conference of 1814, 
the Confession ordered printed in 1813, which seems to 
have been that of 1789, being approved. But there is 
reason to believe that the Rules of Discipline w^ere in some 
points changed. Christian Newcomer was reelected bishop 
for a period of three years, his election in 1813 having 
been for one year. 

The conference session seems to have been a harmonious 
one, and the secretary, Jacob Baulus, closes his minutes 
with the fervent prayer : " Lord Jesus, be with thy serv- 
ants. Mold them after thine own image. Give them 
godly zeal and untiring faithfulness. Let thy virtues 
shine in them, and thy light shine through them. And 
may many be brought to light, and we will ascribe all 
the praise to God. Amen." 

VIII. THE MIAMI CONFERENCE SESSIONS OF 1810-1814. 

Mention has already been made of the organization of 
a new conference in the West, the second of the Church 
in the historic order. The initial session was held on 
August 13, 1810, at a camp-meeting held at Michael 
Crider's, in Ross County, Ohio. That there was now 
a considerable number of United Brethren west of the 
Alleghany Mountains, is suggested by the fact that at 



THE CONFERENCES OF 1801-1814 185 

this meeting there were present thirteen preachers and two 
exhorters. Among these was Christian Newcomer, not yet 
then elected to the office of bishop, but making a tour of 
supervision to the scattered churches of what was then 
called the West. ' Bishops Otterbein and Boehm being 
now very old and unable to attend to episcopal duties, 
especially in so distant a field, the care of the superin- 
tendency was gradually laid upon others, and chiefly 
upon Mr. Newcomer. 

At this first session of the conference but little business 
was transacted beyond simple organization. The session 
was opened, however, in the usual regular form, with the 
reading of the third chapter of I. John, singing, and 
prayer. Then followed a very fervent experience meeting, 
in which all the ministers participated. In this meeting 
all covenanted together to assist one another in promoting 
the common work. 

The preachers present at this conference were : Christian 
Newcomer, George Benedum, John Froshauer, Daniel 
Troyer, Andrew Zeller, Jacob Zeller, Henry Evinger, 
Christian Crum, Abraham Hiestand, Michael Crider, 
Thomas Winters, Ludwig Kramer, Henry Hiestand ; the 
exhorters, Frederick Klinger and John Pontius. 

The second session of the Miami Conference, that of 1811, 
was held on August 23 in Fairfield County, Ohio. Thir- 
teen preachers were present at this conference. After the 
opening exercises, Mr. Newcomer, who again presided, 
preached an appropriate sermon. Then followed the ex- 
perience meeting usual at all the conferences of those 
times. On the second day the examination of the moral 
and official character of the ministers was held. Ludwig 
Kramer and Jacob Zeller offered themselves as unre- 
served itinerants, and the conference accepted them. John 
Pontius, John Bowser, Dewalt Mechlin, and Jacob Lehman 



186 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

were licensed to preach. George Benedum was elected 
presiding elder. The conference was closed with a fervent 
address by Mr. Newcomer. Such are a few of the points 
in the transactions of these early conference sessions. 

The sessions of 1812, 1813, and 1814 were each held 
in due form, the first at Andrew Zeller's in Montgomery 
County, on August 6 ; the second at the house of Peter 
Seitz, in Fairfield County, on August 26 ; and the third 
again at Andrew Zeller's, on August 23. Bishop New- 
comer presided at each of these conferences — at the 
sessions of 1813 and 1814 as a fully authorized bishop. 

At the session of 1813 an important question relating 
to the proper mode of ordaining ministers was considered. 
Eegret was expressed that too little order had been ob- 
served both in receiving and ordaining preachers. A 
resolution was adopted requesting Father Otterbein to 
ordain one or more preachers. 

At the session of 1814 important steps were taken pre- 
paratory to holding a General Conference. The conference 
arranged the plan of representation which was afterward 
carried out. 



CHAPTER XI 

FRIENDLY CORRESPONDENCE 
I. WITH THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

We have already seen that between Bishop Otterbein, 
the founder of the United Brethren Church, and Bishop 
Asbury, the first great leader of the American Methodist 
movement, there existed permanently the strongest bonds 
of fraternal and Christian fellowship. This feeling of 
brotherly regard was widespread among their followers as 
well. In those earlier years the preachers of the United 
Brethren Church preached almost exclusively in the Ger- 
man language, while the Methodist preachers used, with 
the rarest exceptions, only the English. There was there- 
fore but slight occasion for clashing, or for the springing up 
of jealousies, although they occupied the same field. The 
preaching places of the two churches were open for the 
freest use by the ministers of each, and revival meetings 
were frequently held by United Brethren and Methodist 
ministers together. Of the converts, those speaking only 
the German language were usually gathered into the 
United Brethren fold, while those who spoke the English 
only almost uniformly united with the Methodist Church. 
Visits were frequently made by the ministers of one church 
to the annual conference sessions of the other, and there 
was a general feeling that the work they were doing was 
one work for a common Master. 

This generous feeling and practice, which had become 
an unwritten law between the two churches, led to a 

187 



188 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

friendly official correspondence, commencing in 1809, and 
extending through several years. The correspondence was 
conducted in part by letters, and in part by regularly 
appointed delegates, the object being to cement still more 
closely in the bonds of Christian fellowship the two de- 
nominations. The leading men of the Methodist Church, 
with Bishop Asbury, were strongly committed to this 
fraternal attitude, as were also those of the United Brethren 
Church. Among the latter none were more deeply en- 
listed in the cause of this Christian union than Bishop 
Newcomer, both before and after his election to the 
office of superintendent, and no other was perhaps quite so 
deeply disappointed as he when, after the death of Bishop 
Asbury, in 1816, some in high official position among the 
Methodist brethren began to withdraw from the friendly 
compact which had been entered into. 

As Mr. Spayth was at this time a member of the United 
Brethren conference, it will be quite in place to repeat 
here his own record of this section of early history. He 



"In the year 1809 commenced a friendly correspondence 
between the Methodist Episcopal Church and our Church. 
For this purpose Brother Christian Newcomer attended 
the annual conference for the Baltimore District, which 
was held in Harrisonburg, Virginia. That conference 
appointed a committee of five elders to confer with 
Brother Newcomer on a plan of union. That committee 
made a favorable report, and the conference resolved to 
send a friendly letter by Brother Newcomer, to be deliv- 
ered to Father Otterbein ; also resolved to send a messenger 
to lay their report before our next annual conferenccj 
which was done. Upon the reception of this report, a letter 
of amity and reciprocal friendship was sent from the Breth- 
ren conference, through their messenger, to the annual 



FRIENDLY COBBESPONDENCE 189 

conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church which met 
in Baltimore in 1810. This conference resolved to con- 
tinue the friendly correspondence and settle on a plan of 
harmonizing in some respects with the United Brethren 
in Christ. 

"This treaty, if we may so call it, of amity and friend- 
ship rested on the conviction founded in Scripture and 
Christian experience that a Christian people who had all 
the essential and important elements of our holy religion, 
in doctrine, in faith, experience, and practice, in connection 
with a living and itinerant ministry among them, and 
who occupied the relations of co-workers, . . . should have 
some bond of union, some fraternal relations, more than 
had hitherto been exhibited and cherished by the great 
family of Protestant churches, and in the observance of 
which they might find a cause to vie with each other in 
those delightful acts of brotherly kindness, and in the 
interchanges in public worship, as well as in the social 
and more endearing enjoyments of prayer-, class-, and 
love-feast-meetings. 

"February 24, 1812, Brother Newcomer met Bishop 
Asbury in Leesburg, Virginia. There the Bishop invited 
Brother Newcomer to attend the Philadelphia Conference 
in April, in order to assist in effecting a link of union and 
brotherly fellowship within the bounds of that conference. 
Brother Newcomer attended accordingly ; and the con- 
ference appointed Thomas Ware, Bouring, and Fox to 
confer with him. The conference also resolved that they 
would act and go as far in this matter as the Baltimore 
Conference had done, and to signify the same they ad- 
dressed a letter to the conference of the United Brethren, 
with a second resolve to send two messengers to consult 
more fully on this subject with our annual conference. 

"The points in this agreement were but few, leaving 



190 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

each church entire and distinct, as they had been previous 
to this arrangement. The first was, that the meeting- 
houses on each side should be open, when not occupied 
by themselves ; secondly, that the members in and from 
each church should be admitted into the class-meetings, 
prayer-meetings, and love-feast meetings at all times when 
they should present themselves for admission."^ 

In earlier pages of his history Mr. Spayth refers to 
the advent of Mr. Asbury, then still an unordained lay 
preacher, and his brethren, the Methodist preachers, to 
the regions occupied by the United Brethren, and to the 
strong fraternal feeling which sprang up between the min- 
isters and people of the two churches. His record of this 
gives an interesting picture of the conditions which pre- 
vailed. A part of his account is thus condensed : 

About the time of the War of the Revolution there were 
numerous societies of Brethren in the German settlements 
of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. In most, if not 
in all, those places, the Brethren preachers preceded by 
some years the advent of the Methodist preachers. When 
the latter pushed their way into the German towns and 
neighborhoods, the Brethren received them gladly into 
their houses, affording them every opportunity to preach 
the gospel in the English language ; for, while many 
of them could not understand the tongue they spoke, they 
could understand the language of the heart, and they 
perceived that they preached a living gospel, a heart-felt 
religion, the same as their own, and that God was with 
them. And when souls were converted under their 
ministry they rejoiced greatly, and called them their 
brethren in the Lord. And these English ministers, called 
Methodists, found in the United Brethren the same spirit 
of grace, and of truth and love. Hence they were to- 

^Spayth's History, pp. 113-115. 



FRIENDLY CORRESPONDENCE 191 

gether in mutual friendship and confidence, a friendship 
which, through their united labors, resulted in much 
spiritual advantage, in many seasons of gracious refreshing 
through the outpouring of the Spirit of God upon the 
hearts of the people, and the conversion of many souls. 
Wesley's rules, as far as they came in conflict with or 
would for a moment have interrupted or marred this 
perfect joy, were either suspended or held subject to the 
higher law of Christ.^ 

These fraternal relations continued for a series of 
years, until after the death of Bishop Asbury, as already 
observed, every door to every form of service inviting the 
admission of English and German, Methodist and United 
Brethren, alike. Mr. Spayth was for some years a par- 
ticipant in the experiences of this brotherly fellowship, 
and as he wrote many years afterward, when well advanced 
in age, his heart still dwelt fondly upon the gracious scenes. 
With tender pathos we hear him saying : 

^' I confess it is hard for me to get away from this sunny 
spot. The love, I trust, still burns within my breast. I 
can look back and yet see the smiles and cordial shakes 
of the hand, — hands now cold in death, while mine 
writes and trembles, — the hearty and joyous welcome 
when Methodists and United Brethren met. Their songs, 
their voices, their shouts of Hallelujah, Hallelujah, con- 
tinue to ring — ring and vibrate in my nervous system 
while I write, and thrill my soul afresh. Whenever the 
mind dwells on the loveliness of those past scenes, an 
angel seems to whisper, It was then that 

"'The morning stars sang together, 

And all the sons of God shouted for joy.' 

"We are constrained to say : 

iSpayth's History, pp. 79-81. 



192 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

'"What happy hours we once enjoyed, 
How sweet their memory still.' 

'"Then there was no iniquity in Jacob, 
Nor perverseness in Israel ; 
The Lord his God was with him, 
And the shout of a King was among them.' " ^ 

In the years 1809 to 1814 a series of official letters, now 
possessing a peculiar historic interest, passed between the 
Methodist and United Brethren conferences. The corre- 
spondence is well worth preserving, and may be found in 
Spayth's and Lawrence's histories. 

It was a cause for profound regret to the United Brethren, 
and equally so to many Methodists, that the fraternal com- 
pact thus formed was destined so soon to be broken after 
the death of the great-souled Asbury. An influential pre- 
siding elder in the Methodist Church, Mr. Spayth relates, 
more zealous for the observance of Mr. Wesley's rule than 
for the cultivation of mutual Christian love between differ- 
ent denominations, declared that he would no longer recog- 
nize the terms of the union. The preachers under his 
control submitted to his ruling, and the doors of the Metho- 
dist class-meeting were closed against United Brethren. 
Happily, these conditions have long since passed. Mr. Wes- 
ley's arbitrary rule, doubtless a wise and good measure when 
his early followers in England were subject to disturbance 
by mobs of outlaws, long ago became a dead letter in the 
Methodist Discipline and has disappeared from its pages. 

II. W'lTH THE EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION. 

With the opening years of the present century the 
church known as the Evangelical Association, at first as 
the Albrights, or Albright's People {die AlhrecMs Leute)^ 
came into being. Mr. Albright, the founder, born and 

1 Spayth's History, pp. 81, 82. 



FRIENDLY CORRESPONDENCE 193 

baptized in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, connected 
himself, upon his conversion, with the Methodist Church. 
He had little knowledge of the English language, and 
his early ministry was directed wholly to the German- 
speaking people of eastern Pennsylvania. If Bishop 
Asbury had been disposed to favor a German ministry 
within the Methodist Episcopal Church, it is probable 
that this separate body of German Methodists would not 
have been formed. The original conference, in adopting 
a name, at its session of 1807, called itself "The Newly- 
Formed Methodist Conference."^ This was later, when 
it was entirely clear that the organization must be an 
independent one, exchanged for the name "The Evan- 
gelical Association." 

The type of this new body of Christians, their doctrinal 
teachings and polity, their insistence upon conversion and 
a godly life, the spiritual fervor which characterized their 
preaching, their prayer- and class-meetings, and withal 
their itinerant method of bringing the gospel to the 
people, naturally attracted the favorable attention of the 
United Brethren. The further fact of coincidence in 
language, their preaching being then wholly in the Ger- 
man, seemed to make not only fraternal cooperation, but 
actual organic union, with them desirable. It was with 
this thought in mind that Bishop Newcomer, in April, 
1813, made a visit to their conference, where the subject 
of union was freely discussed. As a result, they prepared 

1 Dr. R. Yeakel, in his History of the Evangelical Association, pp. 84, 85, says : 
"This conference gave the church it represented no distinct name. . . . But 
the conference adopted a conference name by calling itself 'The Newly-Formed 
Methodist Conference.' Albright had been a Methodist, and was such still in 
his heart, faith, and practice. If he had been allowed to fulfill his mission to 
the Germans within the Methodist Church, he would have remained in that 
church, and the Evangelical Association would probably never have come 
into an existence. Yet he was Methodistically minded all his lifetime, and so 
were all his co-laborers, and hence came this designation of the conference 
quite naturally." 
13 



194 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

a written communication on the subject of union, which 
they handed to Bishop Newcomer, to be presented by 
him to the United Brethren conference, which was to 
meet soon after in Lancaster County. The United Breth- 
ren received the communication favorably, and appointed 
a committee of four brethren to meet a like committee 
of four, the Albright conference to arrange, if possible, a 
basis of union. The men appointed on the part of the 
United Brethren were Bishop Newcomer, Christian Crum, 
Joseph Hoffman, and Jacob Baulus. On the part of the 
Albrights they were George ^Miller, John Walter, John 
Dresbach, and Henry Neible. They met in council on 
November 11, 1813, and remained together for several 
days, but the object of the meeting failed.^ 

Further friendl}^ interchanges followed in the next few 
years, and a final council was held at the house of Henry 
Kumler, afterward the elder Bishop Kumler, commencing 
on February 14, 1817. Bishop Newcomer has this brief 
entry in his Journal : " February 14 — Twelve preachers, six 
of the United Brethren in Christ, and six of the Albright 
brethren, met this day at Henry Kumler's, to make 
another attempt to unite the two societies, but we could 
not succeed in coming to an agreement."^ Dr. Yeakel, 
in his "History of the Evangelical Association," gives 
the names of the United Brethren members of this com- 
mission as "Bishop C. Newcomer, Joseph Hoffman, Jacob 
Baulus, Abraham Mayer, Christian Berger, and Conrad 
Roth."^ The names of the Albright commissioners are not 
given. Bishop Albright's name does not appear in connec- 
tion with this movement, his death having occurred in 1808. 

The cause of this second failure is attributed by Dr. 
Yeakel to two considerations : First, the commissioners 

^ Spayth's History, pp. 142, 143. « j^ewcomer's Journal, p. 247. 

3 Dr. R. Yeakel's History of the Evangelical Association, Vol. II., p. 142. 



FRIENDLY CORRESPONDENCE 195 

from the United Brethren side were not empowered with 
full authority to make a final arrangement. Whatever 
agreement they might enter into must, according to their 
instructions, be referred to their General Conference for 
approval. Second, in the judgment of the Evangelical 
commissioners the United Brethren were not yet suffi- 
ciently crystallized into denominational life. The two 
points alleged to sustain this view were, that they had 
as yet no printed Discipline, and that their itinerant system 
was not yet organized, and was therefore without strength. 
On these points it may be remarked, first, that the 
genius of the United Brethren Church has from its early 
days, or since the organization of its General Conference, 
required the approval by that body of any important move- 
ment affecting the body of the Church generally. The 
General Conference would not now empower half a dozen 
men to enter into any compact that should afiect the 
autonomy of the Church. In regard to the second point, it 
may be said that the Discipline of the Church adopted 
by the General Conference of 1815 was printed in 1816, 
the year previous to the meeting of the joint committee in 
February, 1817.^ On the last point, that pertaining to the 
itinerancy, it is to be said that the United Brethren itiner- 
ancy was at that time not yet fully organized, as has been 
before remarked in this volume. Mr. Albright, having 
united with the Methodist Church, and for a time ex- 
pecting to remain permanently so identified, adopted all 
the polity of that church, a part of which is its thoroughly 
organized itinerant system. The early United Brethren 
came mostly from churches whose polity was essentially 
congregational and non-itinerant, and its itinerant service 
for a time was chiefly that of evangelistic visitation, the 
true itinerant feeling and system being not yet developed. 

1 See p. 166. 



196 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

The local ministry remains with us to this day, entitled 
to equal rights and privileges in the annual conference 
with the itinerant ministry, and carefully protected by 
constitutional provision,^ a kind of historic heirloom of 
the time when the entire ministry of the Church was 
essentially local. Bishops Otterbein and Boehm never 
were itinerants except in the sense of evangelists. Bishop 
Newcomer became an itinerant in the extremest sense, if 
almost incessant travel constitutes one an itinerant. 

^See p. 366; also, Discipline, Chap. III., Coustitution, Art. II., Sec. 3. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEADERS 

Within a period of less than twenty-four months, in 
the years 1812 and 1813, the Church was called to sus- 
tain the loss of the three most eminent of its leaders of 
those early days. 

I. BISHOP MARTIN BOEHM. 

The first of these to be called to the final reward was 
Bishop Martin Boehm. His death occurred on March 
23, 1812. Though so greatly advanced in years, his 
health and strength were preserved to a remarkable 
degree. He was quite active, and able to ride on horse- 
back until within a few days of death. His illness was 
very brief, and when the messenger came this servant of 
the Lord was ready. He suffered but slight pain during 
the few days of his last illness, and it was not supposed 
that the end was near. The only sign of a possible fatal 
result was a rapid decline in his strength. Eealizing, 
seemingly, that the last hour was at hand, he requested 
to be raised up, that he might sing and pray once more. 
He did this in a clear and distinct voice, then sank back 
on his pillow, and his sainted spirit took its flight. His 
remains were laid to rest in the cemetery beside the church, 
on his son's farm, earlier a portion of his own homestead, 
to await the trumpet call of the final day. His age was 
eighty-six years, three months, and eleven days, and he 
served in the gospel ministry fifty-three years. 

Before passing from the name of Bishop Boehm a word 

197 



198 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

should be said concerning the relations he sustained 
to the Methodist Episcopal Church during the closing 
years of his life. His son, Rev. Henry Boehm, in his 
"Reminiscences, Historical and Biographical," written 
in his eighty-first year, makes a strong claim as to 
the connection of Mr. Boehm with that church, and 
conveys the impression that his relations to the United 
Brethren Church were in his later years rather lightly 
held. This much is to be said truthfully of Mr. Boehm, 
that, like Otterbein and Wesley, he did not deem it an 
impossibility, nor even in any sense inconsistent, to hold 
relationship in more than a single denomination. Mr. 
Wesley, while originating the movement which has exerted 
so mighty an influence in the progress of modern Chris- 
tianity, never thought it necessary to separate himself 
formally from the Church of England, nor was he ever 
excluded from its fellowship. ^Ir. Otterbein, in like 
manner, though seldom in his later life attending the 
sessions of the synod, never severed his relation to 
the German Reformed Church, nor was his name ever 
stricken from the roll of its ministers. So Bishop Boehm, 
when quite far advanced in age, about the year 1802, for 
the convenience of attending the social meetings held in 
Boehm's Chapel, permitted his name to be placed on the 
class-book of the Methodist society. This church, a sub- 
stantial stone building, stood on land that had belonged 
to his son Jacob, the farm being earlier a part of Martin 
Boehm's own homestead. Quite early, before the church 
was built, Mr. Boehm had welcomed Methodist ministers to 
his home to preach the word in his house, and a class of 
converts was formed, Mrs. Boehm being one of the number. 
His son Jacob also became a member of that church, while 
Henry, at first recognized as among the United Brethren 
ministers, was afterward attracted to the Methodist Church 



THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEADERS 199 

on account of the greater thoroughness of its organization, 
especially as to its more elaborate discipline and the 
efficiency of its itinerant system. 

As to the permanent connection of Martin Boehm with 
the United Brethren Church, it should be sufficient to 
say that he continued to attend the sessions of the annual 
conference, presiding over it as bishop, even after Bishop 
Otterbein was no longer able to be present. Both Otter- 
bein and Boehm were present at the Conference of 1800, 
at which time they were first formally elected bishops. Of 
this Henry Boehm makes note. In 1801 both were pres- 
ent, their names being signed to the minutes. The name 
of George A. Guething, who was for a number of years 
secretary of the conference, appears in connection with 
theirs. Of the three, Boehm's name stands first. The 
minutes of the Conference of 1802 are signed by Boehm 
and Otterbein, Boehm's name again standing first. This 
reversal of the names is quite in harmony with Bishop 
Otterbein's modesty and his uniform recognition of the 
apostolic injunction, "In honor preferring one another." 
The minutes of 1803 are signed by William Otterbein, 
Martin Boehm, and George Adam Guething. In 1804 
Boehm was present, Otterbein absent. This was the year of 
the fever epidemic, but Boehm was in attendance. In 1805 
both were present, and the minutes are signed by William 
Otterbein and Martin Boehm. At this session both were 
reelected bishops. In 1806 neither Otterbein nor Boehm 
was present, both being now past eighty years of age. 
The minutes are signed by George Adam Guething and 
Christian Newcomer. In 1807 Boehm was again present, 
and the minutes are signed by Martin Boehm and George 
Adam Guething. The minutes of 1808 are signed by 
Guething and Newcomer. In 1809 Boehm was again 
present. This session was held in Lancaster County. The 



200 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

minutes are not signed, but his presence is noted in the 
body of the record. This was the last session Bishop Boehm 
attended. He was now eighty-three years old, and the 
time was three years before his death. In the minutes of 
1812, the session opening on May 13, Bishop Boehm having 
died in March previous, his death is duly recorded. 

It is not necessary to follow Henry Boehm 's statement 
in all its details, in portions of which he seems to wax 
perhaps a little over-zealous. But he insists strongly upon 
his father's high sense of honor — that he could not stoop 
to do a mean thing. But would it not seem quite incon- 
sistent for Mr. Boehm to continue up to almost the last 
year of his life to preside as bishop over the United Breth- 
ren conference, or to suffer his formal reelection in 1805, if 
he had become really a Methodist? We must conclude 
that he did precisely what he says he did, in answer to 
one of a series of questions first published in the Methodist 
Magazine;'^ also found in Dr. Bangs's "History of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church."^ The portion of the answer 
referred to is as follows : " Age having overtaken me, with 
some of its accompanying infirmities, I could not travel as 
I had formerly done. In 1802 I enrolled my name on a 
Methodist class-book, and I have found great comfort in 
meeting with my brethren." It was at the age of seventy- 
seven when Mr. Boehm entered, for the sake of conveni- 
ence, into this relation with his Methodist brethren, so that 
he might have an open door to the class-meetings, which at 
that time would have been closed against him. From 1809 
on, for some years, he could have enjoj^ed this freedom 
without enrolling his name. In the same answer he says : 
*'I am, this 12th of April, 1811, in my eighty-sixth year. 
Through the boundless goodness of God I am still able to 
visit the sick, and occasionally to preach in the neighbor- 

1 Vol. VI., pp. 210-249. » Vol. II., pp. 365-376. 



THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEADERS 201 

hood. To his name be all the glory in Christ Jesus." "I 
can truly say my last days are my best days. My be- 
loved Eve is traveling with me the same road, Zionward ; 
my children, and most of my grandchildren, are made 
partakers of the same grace." ^ 

Thus the name of Bishop Boehm, while associated in a 
fraternal and eminently Christian way with another denom- 
ination for which he cherished only regard and love, stands 
inseparably connected with the Church to which he gave 
the service of his long and useful life, second only in honor 
and veneration to that of the greater Otterbein, with whom 
in the labors of the gospel he was so closely associated.^ 

II. GEORGE ADAM GUETHING, 

The session of the Eastern Conference for 1812 was held 
at Antietam, Mr. Guething's home, commencing on May 12. 
Bishop Boehm having died, and Bishop Otterbein being 
too feeble to attend, Mr. Guething was called to preside. 
Though well advanced in life, he was in seemingly good 
health and in a remarkably cheerful mood, and none 
had any thought that the end was nigh. According to 
Mr. Spayth, the circumstances of his death were as follows : 

Mr. Guething, accompanied by his wife, went to the 
city of Baltimore, to spend a week or two with his dearly 
beloved brother William Otterbein and other friends in 
that city. But becoming somewhat indisposed, he shortened 
his visit, and left the city for home. On the way returning, 

1 Boehm's Reminiscences, p. 380. 

2 The reader, whose attention has been especially drawn to the regular 
order of the annual conferences from 1800 to 1809, will be further interested 
to notice the succession of the Eastern Conference onward to the General 
Conference of 1815. The minutes of 1810 and 1811 are without signature, though 
Guething and Newcomer were present at each. Those of 1812 (May 12) are 
signed by Newcomer. Guething was present, his death occurring in June 
following. At the conference of 1813, Boehm having died, Newcomer was first 
elected bishop. He was reelected in 1814. The minutes of the sessions of 1814 
and 1815 are signed by Christian Newcomer, Bishop, and Jacob Baulus, Secre- 
tary. 



202 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

he stopped for the night at the home of Mr. Snyder, about 
thirty miles from the city. Here his iUness increased dur- 
ing the night. Early in the morning he felt somewhat 
relieved for a while, and conversed with his wife and Mrs. 
Snyder about the Christian's hope and the prospect of a 
glorious immortality. Suddenly he became silent. When 
he spoke again he said, "I feel as though my end had 
come." Presently he spoke again, exclaiming : " Hark, hark, 
who spoke ? Whose voice is this I hear ? Light ! light ! 
what golden light ! Now all is dark again. Please help 
me out of this bed." He was assisted, as requested, and 
then said, " Now let us sing," and led in the following stanza : 

"Komm^ du lang verlangte Stunde, 
Komm', du Lebensgeist von oben; 

O wie soil mein froher Munde, 
Jesu, deine Treue loben; 

Wann mich deine Liebesmacht, 
Dir zu deinen frei gemacht." 

A somewhat free translation of this beautiful stanza is 
as follows : 

"Come, thou long-expected moment, 

Come, thou Spirit from on high; 
' T is thy call, my Lord and Master ; 

How shall I express my joy, 
When thy grace and power of love 

Bid me rise to climes above." 

Having completed the singing of this stanza, Mr. 
Guething sank down on his knees, leaning against the 
bed, and offered an earnest prayer of thanksgiving to God 
for his great mercy toward him, and for the Father's bless- 
ing in this supreme hour. He was then assisted into bed 
again, and in about a quarter of an hour his devout spirit 
was caught up to God. Mr. Guething's death occurred 
on June 28, 1812. His age was seventy-one years, four 
months, and twenty-two days. Mr. Guething was a man 



THE DEPABTTJBE OF THE LEADERS 203 

of brilliant powers as a pulpit orator, and was deemed the 
Apollos among the early leaders of the Church. 

III. BISHOP PHILIP WILLIAM OTTERBEIN. 

The time for the departure of the greatest of this illus- 
trious trio drew on more gradually. For him the sum- 
mons came last, so that in another sense the words of 
Scripture were fulfilled, "The first shall be last." For 
some years before the end came. Bishop Otterbein's strength 
began to yield, and once it was thought his death was at 
hand. In May, 1805, he presided over the conference for 
the last time. It was at this session, held at the house of 
Jacob Baulus, that he and Bishop Boehm were elected the 
second time to the office of superintendent. In December 
of that year he was taken suddenly and so severely ill that 
his life was despaired of Mr. Newcomer was in Frederick 
City preaching on Sunday, the 15th, when he received 
the intelligence of this serious sickness. Although it was 
winter, he started on Monday morning long before day- 
light, as early as four o'clock, to ride to Baltimore, reaching 
that city by night. In his Journal he makes the statement 
that he "found Otterbein very ill indeed, and in great 
pains ; he requested me to pray for him. On account 
of his great weakness he could converse but very little." 
On the next morning he found Mr. Otterbein slightly im- 
proved, and says again: "We held a long conversation 
together. Among other things, he said we should only 
prove faithful to the work which was so auspiciously 
begun, and the Lord would certainly be with us and 
continue unto us his blessings. Towards evening his 
pains increased again. He inquired of those around the 
bed whether I was present. Being answered in the 
affirmative, I drew to him, and asked what he desired. 
'0 Christian,' said he, 'my pains are so severe and with- 



204 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

out intermission that without the assisting grace of God 
I must sink, for my strength will shortly be exhausted. 
Do pray that the Lord may graciously lend me his 
assistance, and, if according to his holy will, suffer my 
pains to moderate.' We sang a few verses of a hymn. 
Brother Ettinger, who was also present, and myself prayed 
and besought a throne of grace in his behalf. Before we 
had concluded, the pains abated, and in a short time he 
fell into a slumber." Mr. Newcomer remained with Mr. 
Otterbein during the next forenoon, when, after commend- 
ing him once more to God in prayer, he bade him what he 
thought was in all probability a final farewell. On ex- 
tending to him his hand, Mr. Otterbein said, with great 
emphasis: *'The God of Abraham be with thee and bless 
thee. Remember me at a throne of grace." ^ 

From this illness Mr. Otterbein recovered, but never 
regained his accustomed strength. Special assistance was- 
provided for him in the care of his congregation in Balti- 
more, and instead of going out to assist his brethren in 
their services at communion or other occasions, as he had 
so often done, they now came to assist him. Newcomer's 
Journal has frequent entries noting his visits, and those 
of other ministers, to Baltimore to assist the dear venerable 
father whom they so tenderly loved, so as to make his 
burdens of service lighter. He was yet to live nearly eight 
years before his departure from earthly toil, but during 
these years he remained within the city, except to spend 
occasionally a day with friends near by. During his min- 
istry through these years his congregation continued to 
bestow upon him their tenderest affection, while they 
lightened the burden of his labors to the extent of their 
power. . There was no haste to dismiss from service a 
faithful pastor because he ceased to possess the vigor of his 

^ Newcomer's Journal, pp. 141, 142. 



THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEADERS 205 

mature manhood. At eighty years and up to eighty-seven 
they welcomed joyfully his presence in the pulpit, and 
lavished upon him every token of filial love. 

The time was now at length approaching when toil must 
cease, and the great man be called to his reward. But there 
were some important duties yet to be performed by him, 
and among these was that of giving regular ordination to 
some of his brethren upon whom his mantle was soon to 
fall. The story of this ordination is thus told by Bishop 
Newcomer, who had in the previous spring, on May 7, 1813, 
been elected to the office of bishop.-^ The entry as to the 
ordination is thus made in Bishop Newcomer's Journal : ^ 

"October 1st — This morning we came to Baltimore. Old 
Father Otterbein is very weak and feeble in body, but 
strong and vigorous in spirit, and full of hope of a blissful 
immortality and eternal life. He was greatly rejoiced at 
our arrival, and informed me that he had received a letter 
from the brethren in the West,^ wherein he was requested 
to ordain me, by the laying on of hands, to the office of 
elder and preacher of the gospel, before his departure ; 
adding, 'I have always considered myself too unworthy 
to perform this solemn injunction of the apostle, but now 
I perceive the necessity of doing so before I shall be re- 
moved.' He then requested to know whether I had any 

1 Newcomer's Journal, p. 213. * Ibid., pp. 219, 220. 

3 The letter here referred to by Bishop Otterbein was an official communi- 
cation from the Miami Conference, citing action taken at its session of 1813, 
touching the subject of ordination by the laying on of hands. On pages 20 and 
21 of the Miami Conference journal the following entries are found: 

"The mode of ordination was next taken up, as also the manner of receiv- 
ing preachers. It is lamented that too little order has been attended to in 
receiving preachers, as well as ordaining. The conference, therefore, has taken 
it into consideration whether it is proper that a preacher should be ordained 
without the laying on of the hands of an elder." 

"After reading . . . , singing, and prayer, took up the subject of ordination. 
Agreed that a petition be sent to Father Otterbein, requesting him to ordain one 
or more preachers by laying on of hands, who may perform the office for others." 

Following this action a letter was prepared and approved by the conference, 
to be sent to Bishop Otterbein. In accordance with the request so made, the 
three brethren here named were duly ordained. 



206 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

objection to make, and, if not, whether the present would 
not be a suitable time. I replied, that I firmly believed 
solemn ordination to the ministry had been enjoined and 
practiced by the apostles ; therefore, if in his opinion the 
performance of the act should be thought necessary and 
beneficial, I had no objection . . . , but would cheerfully 
consent. Only one request I would wish to make — that, 
as Brothers Joseph Hoffman and Frederick Schaffer were 
present, he should ordain them at the same time. To 
this he readily assented, and immediately appointed the 
following day for the solemn performance of this duty. 

"October 2d — This forenoon the vestry and several other 
members of the church assembled at the house of Father 
Otterbein. The old man addressed us in so spiritual and 
powerful a manner that all beheld him with astonishment. 
It appeared as if he had received particular unction from 
above to perform this solemn act. After addressing a 
throne of grace with great fervency for a blessing, he called 
on Brother William Eyland, an elder of the ^lethodist 
Episcopal Church, who had been invited for the purpose, 
to assist him in the ordination. We were accordingly 
ordained to the office of elders in the ministry by the 
laying on of hands. John Hildt, a member of the vestr}?-, 
had been appointed secretary. He executed certificates of 
ordination to each of us, in the German and English lan- 
guages, which certificates were then signed by Father 
William Otterbein and delivered to each of us. At night 
we preached in the church. I lodged with Otterbein."^ 

The scene presented in these ordination ceremonies was 
one of profoundest interest. The aged father was too feeble 
to stand, and delivered his address in a sitting posture, 
ha^dng first been assisted from his couch to a chair. He 
was again assisted to his feet when he arose to lay his 

^ Newcomer's Journal, pp. 219, 220. 



THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEADERS 207 

hands upon the heads of the candidates. Thus, under 
circumstances of the deepest solemnity, the venerable 
patriarch conferred his final blessing upon his successors, 
making a special point in his address, as Dr. Drury ob- 
serves, "against being precipitate in the ordinations that 
it would devolve upon them to confer." The importance 
of this ordination in one sense will be noted in the fact 
that one of these men, Mr. Newcomer, was already a bishop, 
and another, Mr. Hoffman, was destined to be such after- 
ward. Thus, through these men, if ordination in the 
regular historical sense possesses any value, the United 
Brethren ministry have derived their authority in line 
from the apostles, Bishop Otterbein himself having been 
regularly ordained in the Reformed Church in Germany 
before coming to America. This ordination was simply an 
ordination to the ministry, and not to the office of bishop. 
The following is a copy of one of these certificates of 
ordination, that of Joseph Hoffman : 

Kjiow all men whom it may concern, that Joseph Hoffman, 
this 2d day of October, 1813, in the presence of the subscribers, 
leaders of the congregation in Baltimore, by the Rev. William 
Otterbein, in conjunction with and with the assistance of William 
Ryland, an elder of the Methodist society in Baltimore, by the 
laying on of hands, is duly and solemnly ordained. We desire 
and pray that his labors in the vineyard of the Lord may prove a 
blessing to many souls. 

Given this 2d day of October, 1813. 

(witness.) John Hildt, Secretary. 

William Backer. 

baiitzer schaeffer. | seal. | 

> — . — ' ^ A True Copy. 

Gottfried Sumwalt. \ seal. | 

Jacob Smith. | seal. | 

William Otterbein. 




208 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Mr. Ryland, whom the Bishop invited to assist him 
in the ordination, was a man of brilliant qualities, being 
esteemed one of the foremost pulpit orators of his day. 
He was for a number of years chaplain of the United 
States Senate, and possessed the highest esteem of the 
leading statesmen of the period. 

The day following the ordination ceremonies being the 
Sabbath, these brethren conducted a communion service 
in Otterbein's church. Bishop Newcomer makes in his 
Journal the following entry : " This forenoon Brother 
Hoffman preached first ; I followed him. Brother Schaffer 
assisted in the administration of the Lord's supper. A 
great many persons came to the table of the Lord with 
contrite hearts and streaming eyes. This was truly a day 
of grace to man}^ souls. Unto God be all the glory." 

On the next day Bishop Newcomer and Mr. Hoffman 
left the city. On bidding farewell to Mr. Otterbein he 
exhorted them to faithfulness, assuring them that God's 
blessing would rest upon their work. His last words to 
them were : " Farewell. If any inquire after me, tell 
them I die in the faith I have preached."^ 

The time of the end was now rapidly approaching. 
The asthmatic affection from which he had been suffering 
increased in severity, and his strength was steadily yield- 
ing. In a little more than six weeks from this time he 
was to make his exit from life. When it was apparent 
that the end was near, a number of friends gathered about 
his bed. Dr. J. D. Kurtz, of the Lutheran Church, offered 
the last audible prayer before death came, at the close of 
which Otterbein responded : "Amen, amen ! It is finished." 
A little later he quoted the words of the aged Simeon, 
" Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, accord- 
ing to thy word ; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." 

1 Drury's Life of Otterbein, p. 361. 



THE DEPABTVBE OF THE LEADERS 209 

For a few moments it seemed as if be would not speak 
again. But, rallying once more, he said, "Jesus, Jesus, I 
die, but thou livest, and soon I shall live with thee." 
Then, turning again to his friends about him, he con- 
tinued : " The conflict is over and past. I begin to feel 
an unspeakable fullness of love and peace divine. Lay 
my head upon my pillow, and be still." Mr. Spayth 
adds: "Stillness reigned in the chamber of death, — no, 
not of death ; the chariot of Israel had come. 'See,' 
whispered one, 'how sweet, how easy he breathes.' A 
smile, a fresh glow lighted up his countenance, and, 
behold, it was death." 

Dr. Drury, in remarking upon this closing scene, im- 
pressively says : " It is scarcely too much to say that in 
the long list of dying utterances of eminent saints nothing 
can be found more profoundly fitting or truly sublime than 
the dying words of Otterbein. . . . He died as he lived, 
with commanding composure and subdued greatness." 

Bishop Otterbein's death occurred on Wednesday, No- 
vember 17, 1813, at ten o'clock in the evening. His age 
was eighty-seven years, five months, and fourteen days. 
Sixty-five years had been spent in the ministry of the 
gospel of Christ. The funeral services were held on Satur- 
day morning following. The exercises were conducted by 
Rev. Dr. Kurtz of the Lutheran Church, Eev. William 
Ryland of the Methodist Church, and Eev. George 
Dashields of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Dr. Kurtz 
preached a sermon in German, from the words, "Call the 
laborers, and give them their hire." ^ Mr. Ryland followed 
in English, and Mr. Dashields conducted the service at the 
grave. It was most fitting that Mr. Schaffer, the only 
United Brethren minister in the city, should be chief among 
the mourners. Newcomer, Hoffman, Christian Crum, and 

1 Matt. 20:8. 
14 



210 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Jacob Baulus were away in Pennsylvania, and there was 
then no telegraph, nor any swift-moving mail trains, by 
which to notify them of the death of the great chief. It 
was most beautiful, too, that this good man, who had been 
so broad and all-embracing in his sympathies, should have 
devout men of several denominations utter w^ords of sorrow 
and love about his cherished remains. 

When Newcomer heard of Mr. Otterbein's death, he 
wrote in his diary, "He is called to his everlasting home, 
where he rests from his labors, and his works will follow 
him." Asbury received the news with deepest sorrow, 
and exclaimed : " Is Father Otterbein dead ? Great and 
good man of God ! An honor to his church and country ! 
One of the greatest scholars and divines that ever came 
to America, or born in it. Alas, the chiefs of the Germans 
are gone to their rest and reward, taken from the evil to 
come." 

Kurtz and Ryland and Dashields were all in thorough 
sympathy with Bishop Otterbein in his work as leader 
of the Germans in the great revival movement. 

The remains of Bishop Otterbein were interred in the 
small cemetery connected with the church in which he 
had so long preached, near the entrance way on the 
Conway Street side. The church was built during his 
pastorate, and, though now antiquated in outward appear- 
ance, remains as a substantial link uniting the present to 
the past. A modest marble slab covers his grave, above 
which, sustained by four low columns, rests another of 
equal size, bearing an inscription. But the real monument 
to his memory is the growing and actively aggressive 
Christian denomination of which, under the Divine lead- 
ing, he became the founder. 

The relations existing between the two great leaders. 
Bishop Otterbein, of the United Brethren Church, and 



THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEADERS 211 

Bishop Asbury, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, were 
of a nature so tender and strong that, though often referred 
to in these pages, a few further words ought here to be 
placed on record. From the time of their meeting in 
Baltimore in 1774, on Mr. Otterbein's first advent to that 
city, a warm mutual attachment sprang up. This friend- 
ship, notwithstanding their disparity in years, — Mr. Otter- 
bein being nearly twenty years the senior of Mr. Asbury, — 
ripened into one of almost romantic character. Frequent 
allusions occur in Asbury 's "Journal" to visits made to 
the "great and good Otterbein," as he took delight in 
calling him. Rev. Henry Boehm, in his "Reminiscences," 
says : " They were united by a threefold cord stronger 
than death, and lasting as their existence. They never 
met without complying with the apostolic injunction, 
* Salute one another with an holy kiss.'"^ Mr. Boehm 
was intimately acquainted with both of these men, being 
for a number of years the traveling companion of Asbury, 
and preaching for Otterbein at different times in his 
church, and being a guest in his parsonage.^ 

This high mutual regard led Mr. Asbury to desire that 
Mr. Otterbein assist in the ceremonies when he was 
consecrated to the office of a bishop in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. The first General Conference of the 
Methodist Church was held in the city of Baltimore, in 
December, 1784, a body consisting, not of delegates chosen 
for the purpose, but of all the ministers of the church 
who answered to a general call for the meeting. It was 
presided over by Dr. Coke, whom Mr. Wesley had es- 
pecially consecrated as superintendent of the work in 
America. Mr. Asbury, though he had been preaching 
since he was sixteen years of age and had now been in 
America for eleven years, was as yet unordained, and held 

1 Boehm's Reminiscences, p. 389. « Ibid. 



212 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

properly the rank of a lay preacher, giving hiniself to the 
preaching of the word only, and not administering the 
ordinances. On the first day of the conference, December 
25, he was ordained by Dr. Coke to the office of a deacon, 
Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Yasey assisting. Mr. 
Whatcoat and Mr. Yasey held the rank of elders, ordained 
as such by Mr. Wesley. On the second day Mr. Asbury 
was ordained to the office of an elder, the same elders 
assisting. On the third he was ordained to the office of 
bishop. Before this last consecration he requested that 
Mr. Otterbein be associated with the other ministers in the 
solemn ceremonies, and it was accordingly so done. 

Bishop Asbury preached a special sermon upon the death 
of Bishop Boehm, and some months after the death of Bishop 
Otterbein he also preached a sermon on Otterbein's life and 
labors in the pulpit which he had so long honored. In the 
sermon on Boehm he made these references to Otterbein, in 
connection with Guething and Boehm : " Preeminent among 
these is William Otterbein, who assisted in the ordination 
which set apart your speaker to the superintendency of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. William Otterbein was regu- 
larly ordained to the ministry in the German Presbyterian 
Church. He is one of the best scholars and the greatest 
divines in America. Why, then, is he not where he began ? 
He was irregular. Alas for us ! the zealous are necessarily 
so to those whose cry has been, 'Put me into the priest's 
office, that I may eat a morsel of bread.' . . . Such was 
not Boehm ; such is not Otterbein ; and now his sun of 
life is setting in brightness. Behold the saint of God lean- 
ing upon his staff, waiting for the chariots of Israel."^ 

In March, 1814, the Methodist conference held its session 
in Baltimore, Bishops Asbury and McKendree presiding. 
The conference requested Bishop Asbury to preach a 

^ Bangs's History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Vol. II., p. 371. 



THE DEPABTUBE OF THE LEADEBS 213 

sermon on Bishop Otterbein. The service was held in 
Otterbein's church, being attended by the entire confer- 
ence, Mr. Otterbein's bereft congregation, and many of 
the ministers of the city. In reference to this occasion 
Bishop Asbury made the following minute in his diary : 
"By request I discoursed on the character of the angel 
of the church of Philadelphia, in allusion to P. W. 
Otterbein, the holy, the great Otterbein, whose funeral 
discourse it was intended to be. Solemnity marked 
the silent meeting in the German church, where were 
assembled the members of our conference and many of 
the clergy of the city. Forty years have I known the 
retiring modesty of this man of God, towering majestic 
above his fellows in learning, wisdom, and grace, yet 
seeking to be known only of God and the people of God." 

On the appearance and personal peculiarities of Bishop 
Otterbein, Pev. Henry Boehm, in his "Reminiscences," 
remarks : " In person he was tall, being six feet high, 
with a noble frame and a commanding appearance. He 
had a thoughtful, open countenance, full of benignity, 
and a dark -bluish eye that was very expressive. In 
reading the lessons he used spectacles, which he would 
take off and hold in his left hand while speaking. He 
had a high forehead, a double chin, with a beautiful 
dimple in the center. His locks were gray, his dress 
parsonic." ^ 

Dr. Abel Stevens, in his "History of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church," says of him : " Otterbein was large, and 
very commanding in his personal appearance, with a 
prominent forehead, upon which the seal of the Lord 
seemed to be plainly impressed. His Christian kindness 
and benevolence knew no bounds, and all he received, 
like Wesley, he gave away in charities."^ Interesting 

1 Boehm 's Beminiscences, p. 391. 

2 History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Vol. L, pp. 219, 220. 



214 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

illustrations of Bishop Otterbein's practical charity are 
given in Dr. Drury's Life of Otterbein.^ 

The extreme scantiness of Bishop Otterbein's literary 
remains has been frequently remarked upon. A few of his 
letters — the original autographs — are in the vaults of the 
United Brethren Publishing House, at Dayton. A manu- 
script volume of Latin sermons was known to exist until 
1853, since which time it cannot be found. In 1851 Prof. 
John Haywood, of Otterbein University, examined the 
collection, and translated one of the sermons. A sketch 
of a sermon preached at the Conference of 1801 remains. 
The sermon was based on Jude 20-25. The leading topics 
of the treatment were : 1. The sanctity of the ministerial 
office. 2. The character of the men that should take 
upon them this office. They must be men of faith, of 
prayer, and full of the Holy Ghost. 3. The duties of the 
office. 4. Its great responsibilities. 

Bishop Otterbein read and used the Latin language with 
great ease, and appears to have been thoroughly familiar 
with the Greek and the Hebrew. But he was not much 
given to writing, and no published volumes from his pen 
remain.^ 

The closeness of intimacy between the leaders of the 
United Brethren and Methodist Episcopal churches, as 
seen in the foregoing pages, was a most striking feature 
of that early formative period, and thus it becomes easy 
to account for the close resemblance between the two 
churches in general organization and polity. The itiner- 
ant method of ministerial supply, the episcopacy, the sub- 
episcopacy, or presiding-eldership, quadrennial, annual, 
and quarterly conferences, all are common to both 
churches. The general forms of worship are closely iden- 
tical. The general doctrines of the two churches are the 

1 Pp. 322-325. "" See Drury's Life of Otterbein, Chap. XVI. 



THE DEPARTURE OF THE LEADERS 215 

same, both being Arminian. It cannot, however, be said 
that the United Brethren derived their Arminianism from 
the Methodist Church. Otterbein and Wesley both had 
their birth and early training in churches at least mildly 
Calvinistic. We have already seen in these pages that in 
the school of Herborn, where Otterbein received his educa- 
tion, there was much liberty as to religious faith, and 
Calvinistic teaching was not insisted upon with much 
emphasis ; ^ and, further, that the thirteenth article of 
compact under which Otterbein's congregation in Balti- 
more was organized distinctly provided, "No preacher 
can stay among us who .teacheth the doctrine of predes- 
tination, or the impossibility of falling from grace, and 
who holdeth them as doctrinal points."^ Neither was 
the prayer-meeting derived from the Methodist Church, 
Otterbein having been accustomed to hold regularly 
these meetings in Germany before coming to America, 
and in America before his advent to Baltimore, or his 
meeting with Asbury. The class-meeting, in its more 
specific forms, as earlier known among the United Breth- 
ren, was doubtless derived from the Methodist Church. 
The itinerant system came slowly into favor, its great 
efl&ciency in the Methodist Church commending it. But 
not only the leaders, but many others of the ministers 
and people, holding common convictions as to conversion 
and a spiritual life, commingled freely in the "great meet- 
ings" and in services in the churches and private houses, 
occupied each other's pulpits without jealousy or fear that 
either would gain an advantage over the other, and rejoiced 
together in the most fraternal way when precious harvests 
of souls were gathered into the kingdom. It was therefore 
most natural that in the polity and general life of the two 
denominations, one seeking almost exclusively to give the 

1 See p. 27. « See p. 94. 



216 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

gospel to the Germans, and the other as exclusively to the 
English, there should arise the close similarity which has 
characterized the two churches. Hence, also, while the 
United Brethren Church is in no historic sense an offshoot 
from the Methodist Church, its origin being entirely sepa- 
rate and distinct, its typical characteristics have naturally 
classed it with the Methodist family of churches. This 
fact also has been courteously recognized by the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church in inviting the United Brethren to 
send properly accredited delegates to the Methodist Ecu- 
menical Councils, in London in 1881, and in Washington 
City in 1891, invitations which were accepted in the same 
spirit in which they were given. 

To these fraternal relationships between the Methodist 
and United Brethren churches, Dr. J. M. Buckley, in his 
valuable "History of the Methodists in the United States," 
just published as the fifth volume of the "American Church 
History Series," makes this friendly allusion : " The United 
Brethren in Christ is supposed by many to be a branch 
of American Methodism. The association between their 
founders and the similarity of their origin have often 
been noted. When Asbury was consecrated to the office 
of bishop, William Otterbein, who more than any other 
deserves the name of the founder of the United Brethren, 
was requested by Asbury to assist in the service, and the 
affectionate relation continues between all branches of 
Methodism and the United Brethren."^ 

1 American Church History Series, Vol. V., pp. 615, 616. 



Fourth Period— isi 5-1 837 

CHAPTER XIII 

THE FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1815 

I. PREPARATION FOR THE CONFERENCE. 

The year 1815 marks a notable era in the history of the 
United Brethren Church, as that in which the first General 
Conference was held. The two annual conferences, the 
old conference of the East and the Miami of the West, 
were widely separated geographically, and there could be 
but little interchange of attendance of members of either 
at the annual sessions of the other beyond that of an 
occasional visit. No authorized bishop was present at the 
sessions of the Miami Conference until after the election 
of Bishop Newcomer, in 1813, and the Discipline as then 
existing did not constitute a strong bond of union. The 
Eastern Conference, since its first regular session in 1800, 
had been accustomed to transact all business for the 
Church, and now that the conference of the West had rap- 
idly grown into strength and importance it is quite pos- 
sible that its position was not sufficiently recognized by the 
brethren of the East. This may have been especially 
the case when the old conference elected a bishop in the 
year 1813, and again in May, 1814, and also when it 
adopted a body of rules for the government of the Church. 
No representatives of the Western conference were present 
to bear a part in these important proceedings, and it seems 
probable that the Eastern Conference, relying upon its 

217 



218 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

past prestige, did not think it necessary to consult the 
Western brethren. 

However this may have been, the Miami Conference, at 
its session of August, 1814, uttered a protest against the 
Rules of Discipline, and resolved that a convention, or 
General Conference, composed of delegates representing 
all portions of the Church, should be called to frame a 
body of rules. The following is a literal translation of 
a portion of the minutes of 1814 : 

The present order [ or Discipline ] of the Church was taken under 
consideration and protested against.^ It was moved and adopted 
that there shall be a convention, and that two members from each 
district shall assemble at Abraham DraksePs in Westmoreland 
County. The districts were arranged as follows : ^ . . . The dele- 
gates shall come together November 2 ; the time, however, was set 
forward to June next year. This convention shall form a church- 
constitution for the Brethren. 

The record as a whole gives the impression that con- 
siderable warmth characterized the discussion. 

Mr. Spayth, in his history of the Church, makes the 
following statement of the steps leading to the holding 
of the proposed conference : 

"The conference in the East met at Hagerstown, in 
Maryland, May 24, 1814. Here the demand for an im- 
proved and printed Discipline was under consideration, 
and two manuscript copies were laid on the table, one by 
Brother Christopher Grosch, and the other by Brother C. 
Newcomer. A General Conference was anticipated, but 
no definite action was had in the premises,^ from a desire 
to consult the conference in the West, which was to meet 
at the house of Brother Andrew Zeller, near German- 

* The reference is to the Discipline adopted earlier in the year by the Eastern 
Conference. ^see p. 221. 

3 The statement that "two manuscript copies" for a proposed Discipline 
"were laid on the table," and that "no definite action was had" because a 
General Conference was anticipated, is to be taken in a guarded sense. First, 
there are strong indications that only one manuscript copy was presented, and 



THE FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1815 219 

town, Ohio, August 23, 1814. Brother C. Newcomer was 
requested to call the attention of that conference to the 
contemplated plan of a General Conference, to be held the 
ensuing year, leaving the mode for the election of dele- 
gates to the Miami Conference to determine. This 
conference most cheerfully took up the subject, and recom- 
mended that the members which were to meet in General 
Conference should be elected from among the preachers 
from all parts of the Church, by a majority of the votes 
of the members in the Church."^ 

Dr. Drury, who has given most careful study to the early 
records, including some which were not in the possession 
of either Mr. Spayth or Mr. Lawrence, doubts the historical 
accuracy of this statement of Mr. Spayth. In an article in 
the United Brethren Quarterly Review'^ Dr. Drury says : 

"It may be observed that the Eastern Conference, the 
only conference up to 1810, when the Miami Conference 
was formed, transacted all of the business for the Church, 
its records, however, being very meager and defective. In 
1814 the Miami Conference, which in the four years of its 
existence had a rapid growth, felt itself entitled to share 
in the government of the Church, and therefore proposed 
the formation of a General Conference, and made all neces- 
sary arrangements as to the time and place of meeting 
and the mode of electing delegates, which arrangements 
were acquiesced in by the Eastern Conference." 

Whatever Mr. Spayth's knowledge of the facts may have 
been, it is well known that his education was chiefly in the 

that this copy was signed by Grosch and Newcomer; and, second, there are 
equally strong indications, in certain features which were afterward changed 
or eliminated, that this Discipline was at that time adopted, becoming the 
Discipline called the Discipline of 1814. Of these is Article 2, which provides for 
the election of bishops every three years. ( See Disciplines of the United Brethren 
in Christ, 181!i.-18Ul.) Under this provision Christian Newcomer was, at this con- 
ference of 1814, elected to the office of bishop for three years. The article was 
amended by the General Conference which followed, making the time four years. 
1 Spayth's History, p. 140. 2 yo\. III., p. 35. 



220 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

German language (he was born in Germany), and quite 
defective in the Enghsh, so that the manuscript for his 
history had to undergo severe revision before it could be 
given to the printer. This work was done by Mr. Lawrence, 
who was allowed to use great liberty with the manuscript. 

Two or three things may here be said : First, the min- 
utes of the Eastern Conference for 1814, or any other 
year, are absolutely silent as to any contemplated General 
Conference. From this, therefore, as an official source, 
nothing can be proved. Second, the minutes of the Miami 
Conference contain no reference to any communication, 
either oral or in writing, from the Eastern Conference 
relative to any proposed General Conference. The entire 
record of the Miami Conference is that which has been 
quoted above, together with that relating to voting districts 
for the election of delegates, to be presently referred to. 

And yet this silence of the minutes of both the con- 
ferences is not to be taken as proof conclusive in the 
premises. The minutes of the Conference of 1800 are 
equally silent as to the election of Otterbein and Boehm 
as bishops, and those of the General Conference of 1815 
tell us nothing of the essential things which were done 
there, the very object for which the conference was 
assembled. The facts in these instances are established 
by evidence from independent and unofficial sources. A 
probable solution may be found in the supposition that 
the brethren of the Eastern Conference felt some mis- 
givings as to the propriety of retaining the legislative 
functions wholly in their own hands, and that they dis- 
cussed the question of a General Conference in an 
unofficial way, with the understood wish that Bishop 
Newcomer convey their thoughts to the brethren of the 
West, while no record of their discussion or action on 
the subject was made in the minutes. 



THE FIBST GENEBAL CONFEBENCE—1815 221 

But whether the statement in Mr. Spayth's history be 
correct or not in regard to "leaving the mode for the 
election of delegates" to the General Conference "to the 
Miami Conference to determine," it is certain that this is 
what the Miami Conference did. Eeferring again to the 
official record, we find that they decided to divide the entire 
territory of the Church into ten districts, each district to 
be entitled to two delegates. The following are the dis- 
tricts, as shown by the minutes : First district, Baltimore ; 
second, Hagerstown ; third, Carlisle ; fourth, Pennsylvania 
south of the Alleghanies ; fifth, Pennsylvania north of 
the Alleghanies ; sixth, Muskingum ; seventh. New Lan- 
caster, Ohio ; eighth, Miami ; ninth, Indiana and Ken- 
tucky ; tenth, Virginia. 

Thus early in the history of the Church was the entire 
membership asked to give expression to its will by a 
popular vote. The election of delegates to this highest 
body, the General Conference, has remained permanently 
with the people. Once in every four years the entire 
denomination has the opportunity for uttering its voice, 
with only such modification of methods and ratios of 
representation as the General Conference from time to 
time may deem just, thus preserving all ultimate power 
in the hands of the people. 

A further and very important reason for assembling 
a General Conference lay in the fact that the Rules of 
Discipline existed up to this time only in the briefest 
form. They were excellent as far as they extended, but 
quite too limited in the ground covered to meet the require- 
ments of a growing denomination.^ The methods of 

^ Of the number of followers gathered by Otterbein and his co-laborers, dur- 
ing Otterbein's life-time, Bishop Asbury makes this estimate : " We feel ourselves 
at liberty to believe that these German heralds of grace congregated one hundred 
thousand souls; that they have had twenty thousand in fellowship and com- 
naunion, and one hundred zealous and acceptable preachers." See Dr. Nathan 
Bangs 's History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Vol. II., p. 374; also pp. 370, 371. 



222 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

administration needed to find fuller expression in an 
appropriate way, and a General Conference alone could 
make them finally authoritative. In addition to this was 
the fact that the Discipline, brief as it was, remained as 
yet unprinted. This proved frequently a serious hindrance 
to the preachers, especially when going into the places 
where the Church was unknown, as they found it difficult 
to answer authoritatively the reasonable inquiries of the 
people concerning the Church which they represented. 
The Eastern Conference appreciated this difficulty, and at 
their session of 1813 placed on their minutes the following 
action : 

Resolved^ That the Confession of Faith and the Christian Dis- 
cipline of the United Brethren in Christ be printed. 

Whether this resolution was carried into effect cannot 
now be known, as no printed copies of that date are known 
to exist. The same is true also of the Discipline of 1814. 

II. THE CONFERENCE. 

The election of delegates to the General Conference 
was duly held, and at the appointed time, June 6, 1815, 
fourteen out of the twenty who were chosen were found 
to be present. The place selected for the conference, 
near Mount Pleasant, in Westmoreland County, Pennsyl- 
vania, was fairly midway between the eastern and western 
sections of the Church. The delegates, as classified by 
States, were found to be as follows : 

Pennsylvania — Abraham Mayer, Henry Kumler, John 
Snyder, Abraham Draksel, Christian Berger. 

Maryland — Christian Newcomer, Jacob Baulus. 

Virginia — Christian Crum, Isaac Niswander, Henry G. 
Spayth. 

Ohio — Andrew Zeller, Abraham Hiestand, Daniel Troyer, 
George Benedum. 



THE FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1815 223 

Among those elected, but not present on account of sick- 
ness, was Joseph Hoffman, then pastor of the Otterbein 
Church, in Baltimore. 

The place of meeting was a country school-house, known 
as John Bonnet's, a very humble place indeed for the 
assembling of this body, whose counsels were to affect 
the faith and life of generations of devout followers. The 
location is about one mile east of Mount Pleasant, on the 
old turnpike road leading across the Alleghanies. It was 
named for Mr. Bonnet, a member of the United Brethren 
Church. Near it was the home of Abraham Draksel, then 
far advanced in years. The great beauty of the natural 
scenery about the place has been often remarked. In this 
secluded spot, far from the great city with its lofty spires 
and deep-toned bells, its daily press and ubiquitous re- 
porters, from telegraph wires then undreamed of, from all 
the imposing circumstances so often attending important 
religious assemblies, this body of ministers met to dis- 
charge the grave trust committed to them. The ministers 
themselves were men of humble appearance, as were the 
fishermen and tax-gatherers who followed the call of 
Jesus when he summoned them to the apostolate. Some 
of them, of Mennonite antecedents, adhered to the plain 
garb of their fathers, and might have thought it even 
sinful to dress according to the ways of "the w^orld," as 
did their brethren of a sister denomination, whose first 
General Conference forbade giving tickets for the class- 
meeting to any who wore fashionable dress or superfluous 
ornaments. 

As one looks over the list of names, it is found, too, 
that none were distinguished for learning, none bore titles 
as doctors of divinity, or were known to literature, or 
eminent in any special sense as men recognize eminence. 
Yet they were men of strong, plain sense, well versed in 



224 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

the Scriptures which they preached, famihar with the 
fundamental elements of Christian doctrine, and, withal, 
devout, earnest, laborious, faithful servants of the gospel 
to whose promulgation they were called. Not widely 
different, indeed, were they from that company of plain 
toilers whom Jesus gathered about him, and to whom he 
committed the building of the kingdom after his departure. 
Nearly or perhaps quite all of them had personal acquaint- 
ance with Otterbein ; all of them possessed something of 
the spirit which he infused into the hearts of his followers. 

Bishop Newcomer presided, Andrew Zeller assisting. 
Mr. Zeller opened the session with Scripture reading and 
prayer. Jacob Baulus and Henry G. Spayth were then 
elected secretaries, and the first General Conference of the 
United Brethren Church was organized for business. As 
the brethren looked upon one another, they felt sadly the 
loss of the great leaders who had been transferred to the 
church triumphant. Good men indeed were they who 
sat at the head, but all missed the majestic personality 
of Otterbein, the saintly presence of Boehm, and the 
magnetic power of the eloquent Guething. Indeed, for 
a time, the conference, in the absence of strong leadership, 
seems to have had rough sailing — more discord in the 
proceedings than harmony. So says Mr. Spayth, and so 
notes Newcomer in his diary. Perhaps it may not be amiss 
to hear Mr. Spayth tell of this storm which seemed to 
threaten the conference, and of the shining out of the 
bright rainbow of peace : 

"Nor will we disguise the truth," says Mr. Spayth in 
his history ; "the sky was not exactly clear. A heavy 
atmosphere would ever and anon press and swell the 
bosom, and then came ruffling breezes and sharp words. 
This could not last long. The darkening clouds which 
hung over the conference must be cleared away. A calm 



THE FIBST GENERAL CONFEBENCE—1815 225 

atmosphere and a clear sky could not be dispensed with. 
A pause ensued. The conference agreed to humble them- 
selves before God in prayer. And such a prayer-meeting 
your humble servant never witnessed before nor since. 
Brethren with streaming eyes embraced and thanked 
God. From that hour to the end unanimity and love 
smiled joyously on that assembly. 

"Permit a special notice here. Nothing perhaps was 
anticipated with greater certainty by any delegate in 
going to that conference, than that the meeting should 
take place in the sweetest and most humble subordination 
to each other, each esteeming his brother higher than 
himself, and worthy of more honor. But the spirit of the 
children of Zebedee and their mother is still visible on 
such occasions, and never more so than when wise and 
good rulers, either in church or state, are removed by 
death. For who should have sufficient wisdom, who 
should be so well qualified to take the helm and guide 
the vessel safely as the Zebedees? And should a doubt 
be raised, they are ready to answer. We are able. 

"Our last word when we made the digression was, 
^smiled joyously on that assembly.* Here were dear 
brethren who had stood long and stood firmly in the cause 
of God and man. The spirit of ambition had vanished ; 
its shadow was seen no more. The brethren, it was 
manifest, had but one eye, one ear, one soul, one great 
thought, and that was to form a Discipline containing 
the fewest sections or divisions practicable, and in as few 
words as the grave subject would admit of, in order to 
convey the sense and meaning of church rules, as held 
by the United Brethren in Christ. 

"After mature deliberation, the conference found it good 
and expedient to deliver the Confession of Faith and Rules 
of Discipline to the Church, in love and humility, with the 

15 



226 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

sincere desire that the doctrine and rules, together with the 
Word of God, might be attended to and strictly observed."^ 

III. THE CONFESSION OF FAITH AND RULES OF DISCIPLINE 

OF 1815. 

The Book of Discipline, as agreed upon and set forth 
by this first General Conference, comprises two parts, 
namely, first, a Confession of Faith, and, secondly, a 
body of rules for the government of the Church. Both 
the Confession and the rules are based upon the earlier 
body called the Discipline of 1814, but which existed in 
1813. The Confession was substantially that adopted by 
the Conference of 1789. The rules also are distinctly 
traced back through the earlier Disciplines to the rules 
adopted for Otterbein's church in 1785.^ 

The introduction to the Discipline as adopted by this 
General Conference is a historical statement which is 
preserved in the introductory statement as found in our 
Discipline now. Then follows "Section First," the "Con- 
fession of Faith," and after it seven additional sections, 
the Rules of Discipline proper. No practical movement 
was made for the adoption of a constitution until the 
conferences of 1837 and 1841. 

The Confession of Faith, as adopted by the conference, 
is brief, simple, comprehensive, and really beautiful, lack- 
ing in some essentials of a compact statement of Christian 
doctrine, and yet worthy of a most honorable place among 
the creeds which have been framed through the ages to 
express Christian belief. The whole is comprised in seven 
articles, as follows : 

[1.] In the name of God we confess before all men, that we 
believe in the only true God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; that 

1 Spayth's History, pp. 150, 151. 

'For a fuller presentation of this see Professor Drury's Introduction to 
Disciplines of the United Brethren in Christ, 18U-18U. 



THE FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1815 227 

these three are one, the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father, 
and the Holy Ghost equal in essence with both ; that this triune 
God created heaven and earth, and all that in them is, visible as well 
as invisible, sustains, governs, protects, and supports the same. 

[2.] We believe in Jesus Christ ; that he is very God and man ; 
that he, by the Holy Ghost, assumed his human nature in Mary, 
and was born of her ; that he is the Saviour and Redeemer of the 
whole human race, if they with faith in him accept the grace 
proffered in Jesus ; that this Jesus suffered and died on the cross 
for us, was buried, rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven, 
and sitteth on the right hand of God to intercede for us ; and that he 
shall come again at the last day, to judge the living and the dead. 

[3.] We believe in the Holy Ghost ; that he is equal in being 
with the Father and the Son ; that he proceeds from both ; that we 
are through him enlightened ; through faith justified and sanctified. 

[4.] We believe in a holy church, communion of saints, resurrec- 
tion of the flesh, and a life everlasting. 

[5.] We believe that the Bible, Old and New Testament, is the 
word of God ; that it contains the true way to our salvation ; that 
every true Christian is bound to receive it, with the influences of the 
Spirit of God, as his only rule, and that without faith in Jesus Christ, 
true penitence, forgiveness of sins, and following after Christ, no one 
can be a true Christian. 

[6.] We believe that the doctrine which the Holy Scriptures con- 
tain, namely, the fall in Adam and the redemption through Jesus 
Christ, shall be preached throughout the whole world. 

[7.] We believe that the outward means of grace are to be in 
use in all Christian societies ; namely : that baptism and the remem- 
brance of the death of the Lord in the distribution of the bread and 
wine are to be in use among his children, according to the command 
of the Lord Jesus ; the mode and manner, however, shall be left to 
the judgment of every one. Also, the example of feet-washing 
remains free to every one. 

After this follow seven additional sections, comprehend- 
ing the Rules of Discipline, very complete in their pro- 
visions for the government of a church whose life was yet 
in the simplicity of its earlier years. The first of these, 
"Section Second," relates to the General and annual confer- 
ences. The General Conference is to be held every four 
years. This is the general provision. This conference 
itself, however, provided for a session to be held after two 



228 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

years, for an earlier and fuller consideration of some of the 
things done by it. The third section refers to bishops — 
their election, ordination, powers, and duties. The feature 
providing for a special ordination for bishops was stricken 
out in 1825 as being not supported, as was believed, by 
Scripture precedent. The remaining sections, from four 
to eight, refer to presiding elders, their election and func- 
tions, to elders, their ordination and duties, to preachers 
generally, the method of receiving them, their office and 
duties, to method of procedure against preachers in case 
of immoral conduct, and to members in general. The 
whole is very succinctly stated, and is essentially the same 
as found in the Discipline now on these subjects, only such 
modifications having been made from time to time as were 
suggested by experience. 

The Discipline as thus formed was ordered to be printed. 
The publication seems to have been deferred until the year 
following, and hence the title-page of this first printed 
Discipline, as previously stated, bears the date of 1816.^ 

It should be observed here that this General Conference 
did not take it upon itself to create a new Confession of 
Faith, or to make new rules for the government of the 
Church. The Confession of Faith varies but slightly in 
expression from the admirable instrument adopted by the 
Conference of 1789, in which the skillful hand of Otterbein 
was so plainly visible. And the rules are simply a well- 
crystallized expression of the previous practice of the 
Church. The itinerant system of ministerial supply, 
already so well tested for its efficiency, was more clearly 
defined and adopted as the settled policy of the Church. 
The essential features of this system included bishops, 
presiding elders, and pastors. 

It is noticeable that the same spirit of generous and 

1 See p. 166. 



THE FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1815 229 

brotherly concession was manifest in this first General 
Conference as in the Conference of 1789. The freedom 
of conscience, for example, as to mode of baptism, was 
again distinctly provided for, so that those deriving their 
church lineage and education from Reformed sources could 
be free to sprinkle, and those from Mennonite or other 
sources could baptize by pouring or immersion/ 

IV. RESULTS OF THE CONFERENCE. 

The beneficial results following the first General Con- 
ference were most marked. There had been, since the 
death of Otterbein, a somewhat widespread feeling of 
doubt as to whether the Church would be able to hold 
permanently together. This feeling was the stronger 
because within so brief a period the three most distin- 
guished leaders had been removed by death. Others, 
indeed, remained, or were soon to rise up and take their 
places, but they were as yet untried. The government of 
the Church, which had before derived its strength from 
its leaders rather than from a well-crystallized system, 
was now actually weak. The itinerant system, so far, 
existed chiefly in name, the preachers, nearly all, — though 
many of them traveled extensively, — being classed as 
local. Many of these men, indeed, were almost con- 
stantly in tlie work of preaching, but not as members 
of an organized system. Other elements of weakness 
existed, some of which were becoming quite apparent. 
Large hope was entertained as to the influence which a 
General Conference might exert in building the Church 
into strength, and these hopes were not doomed to disap- 
pointment. As a bond of union for the widely separated 
sections of the Church, as well as in providing wisely for 
its government and the operation of its working machinery, 

^ See earliest Confession of Faith, with remarks thereon, p. 137 ft. 



230 THE UNITED BBETHREN IN CHBIST 

the influence of the conference upon the Church was most 
beneficent, and it was felt that henceforth ministers and 
people could address themselves to their work with new 
assurance as to the future. 

V. THE GERMAN THE EARLY LANGUAGE OF THE CHURCH. 

It will be of interest to note here that the business of 
this General Conference, as of several others that follow^ed, 
was conducted entirely in the German language. The 
German, as has been heretofore stated, was the language 
of the fathers of the Church. Otterbein, Boehm, and 
Guething used the German exclusively. Their mission 
was to the German population of Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
and Virginia. The preachers who arose from among their 
converts spoke the same tongue and extended the work 
among others speaking the same language. The first 
printed Discipline, that of 1815, appeared only in the 
German. But about this time a good many of the min- 
isters began preaching also in the English language, wdiile 
some came forward who used the English only. The 
General Conference of 1817, therefore, ordered a transla- 
tion to be made, and accordingly in 1819, after a delay 
of two years, the book appeared in the English also, the 
German and the English being printed on opposite pages. 
As Mr. Spayth was secretary of the conference, the trans- 
lation is believed to have been his work. The German 
continued to be the predominant language in the General 
Conference until 1833. In 1837 the Discipline appeared 
first in English, and the German version as a translation.^ 

The long delay of the Church in adopting the English 
as its principal tongue operated greatly against its growth. 
By an unavoidable necessity its field was narrowed, the 

^See Professor Drury's Introduction to Disciplines of the United Brethren in 
Christ, 181U-18A1, p. ix. 



THE FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1815 231 

German population always constituting but a small frac- 
tion of the whole. The German-speaking people, too, 
were less progressive than their English neighbors, and 
this conservatism militated against a more rapid expan- 
sion. There was a constant tendency also among the 
Germans, just as we find it now, to drift over into the 
English. The children of the German families were 
steadily breaking away from the old moorings and find- 
ing homes in the English-speaking churches. The Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, from its close resemblance to the 
United Brethren in doctrine, polity, and general church life, 
and from the intimate association of the ministers and 
people of the two denominations, naturally gained by far 
the largest share, while others gained in lesser numbers. 

When once the transition from the German to the English 
became pronounced, the increase in membership began to 
proceed rapidly. A study of the statistics for the last half 
century presents in this regard some interesting features. 
Perhaps the fact is now rather to be deplored that the Ger- 
man has fallen so largely into the background. From the 
exclusive use of the German in the earlier years of the 
Church the change is so extreme that at the present time less 
than four per cent, of the congregations use that language. 

The transition to the English naturally placed the 
Church in a position to spread its work among the people 
of original English descent, and so to draw large accessions 
from that source. But the fact remains unchanged that 
a great part of its people are the descendants of the early 
German settlers, chiefly in Pennsylvania and Maryland. 
These as a class, exiles in great part because of religious 
persecutions in the old countries, were a people possessing 
strength of character, high moral qualities, self-reliance, 
and thrift, and furnished through their descendants a great 
proportion of the best citizenship of the States of their 



232 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

original settlement, as well as throughout the southern 
half of Ohio and westward. 

VI. PERSONAL NOTES. 

Before passing on from this first General Conference it 
will be fitting to pause and make a little closer acquaint- 
ance with the men who constituted this historic assembly. 

1. Christian Newcomer. 

We have already seen that Christian Newcomer, after 
the death of Bishop Boehm, was elected his successor. 
This election was made in 1813, by the conference of the 
East, for one year. In 1814 he was reelected for a term 
of three years. The General Conference convening in 
1815, being higher in authority, elected him again for 
the two remaining years of the term. In 1817, and by 
each General Conference subsequently, he was elected for 
quadrennial terms, until death closed his labors in March, 
1830. His life was one of the greatest activity. In the 
constancy and extent of his travels he surpassed all others 
of the early ministers of the Church. As earlier remarked, 
he was ever in the saddle, visiting congregations in Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, making frequent trips 
across the mountains into western Pennsylvania and over 
into Ohio, and a few times into Indiana and Kentucky, 
holding annual conferences, visiting camp- and other great 
meetings, preaching to large and small congregations, often 
two and three times a day. The last summer of his life, 
when in his eightieth year, he attended no less than eight 
camp-meetings, preaching and otherwise assisting at all 
of them. 

Bishop Newcomer's Journal, beginning in 1795, and con- 
tinuing to his death, though intended by him only as a 
diary for his own private use, and never for publication. 



THE FIBST GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1815 233 

has proved invaluable as a source of much that remains 
to us of early United Brethren history. It is prefaced by 
a brief autobiography, written in his eighty-first year. The 
notes, on account of their extreme brevity, are often disap- 
pointing, because they leave so much unsaid that we want 
to know. But as they were written for his own use only, 
no one, it may be supposed, has a right to complain, but 
there is cause rather for gratitude that so much of valuable 
material is left us. The records breathe a spirit of deep 
piety, and are characterized by cheerfulness and much 
spiritual rejoicing. This sweet spirit of gladness he re- 
tained quite to the end of his life. Among the notes near 
the close of the Journal is found, for example, the follow- 
ing : " This day I am so unwell that I am not able to 
leave my room. But, glory to my God, I can have sweet 
communion with him. Though solitary, I am not left 
alone. My Saviour is still with me, and continues the 
best of friends. Oh, how blessed is the condition of aged 
people, when they know that they have a reconciled God 
and Saviour." 

The last entry in his Journal was made on March 4, 
just eight days before his death, with an evident pre- 
sentiment that the end was near. On March 1, still 
retaining his buoyancy of spirit and his strong desire to 
be active in the Lord's work, he had started to make a 
trip into Virginia. Proceeding as far as Boonsborough, 
Maryland, he remained for the night. On the following 
morning, finding himself quite ill, he gave up his intended 
journey and returned to his home. His strength now 
declined rapidly, and on the 12th he answered the final 
call. His end was peaceful and blessed. Just before his 
death he requested a brother who was present to pray with 
him once more. Without asking assistance he arose from 
his bed and knelt down to join in the prayer. Kising, he 



234 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

sought his couch again, and in a few moments his freed 
spirit passed on into the presence of the Master whom 
he had so devotedly served. Rev. Henry Kumler, Sen., 
afterward bishop, preached his funeral sermon in the 
German language, Rev. John Zahn following in English. 
It may be truthfully said that from the time of the 
death of the first great leaders, Otterbein, Guething, and 
Boehm, no other man in the denomination exerted so 
great an influence in building it up as did Bishop New- 
comer. He had just passed his eighty-first year when the 
messenger came. 

2. Andreiv Zeller. 

Next to Bishop Newcomer in this conference stood 
Andrew Zeller, who was first made associate chairman, 
and then elected bishop. In 1817 he was again elected 
to this office, after which, on account of his advancing 
years, he declined a further reelection, having served six 
years in all. His conversion is dated at about 1790. In 
1806 he came to Ohio, then regarded as the "far west," 
settling near Germantown, in Montgomery County, about 
twelve miles from Dayton. In 1810 he was present at 
the meeting in Ross County where the Miami Conference 
was organized. He was one of the four representatives 
from Ohio in the first General Conference. He is de- 
scribed as a preacher of modest abilities, "mild, plain, 
and evangelical." But to this it is added that "his life 
was a sermon." His earnest, devout spirit impressed itself 
deeply upon the minds and hearts of others. As an illus- 
tration of this Mr. Spayth relates that while he was on 
an official tour, in 1815, he had occasion to stop in a place 
to have a small piece of work done. The mechanic was 
a worthy man, but declined to attend church, or hear the 
gospel preached. As he was proceeding with his work. 



THE FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1815 235 

he cast a casual glance toward Bishop Zeller, who stood 
at a little distance with his hands folded. He was im- 
pressed by the appearance of the bishop, and could not 
resist a second and third look. Soon afterward a deep 
conviction of sin seized upon him, and he found no rest 
until he found it in Christ. Through this incident, gra- 
ciously used by the Holy Spirit, he and his household 
became devout believers. 

Bishop Zeller's influence in the early days of the Miami 
Conference told strongly for its welfare. A number of its 
earlier sessions were held in his hospitable home, and a 
session was in progress in Germantown at the time of his 
decease. He was then in the eighty-fourth year of his age, 
and when some of the brethren who visited him inquired 
of him if he thought the end was nigh, he replied, 
brightening up, "I hope so." In speaking of him Mr. 
Spaytli says : " What a contrast between what men call 
great preachers and what God approves. One hears the 
echo of applause ; the other is followed by a train of 
happy souls bound to meet in heaven. We now see 
through a glass darkly ; fleeting visions pass before and 
around us which will prove happy realities when the veil 
shall be lifted, and we shall see the saints, who are the 
joy and diadem of the true minister, reflecting the light 
of Jesus Christ."^ 

Mr. Lawrence, in writing of Bishop Zeller, says : "As 
he appeared at fourscore, he is described as a little 
above the medium height, and remarkably straight ; hair 
white, and, on the top of his head, thin ; eyes gray and 
full, and skin very fair. To the last year of his life he 
walked perfectly erect, and with a quick and measured 
step." 2 

Bishop Zeller's death occurred on May 25, 1839. His 

* Spayth's History, p. 191. » Lawrence's History, Vol. II., pp. 75, 76. 



236 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

remains were laid to rest on an elevated spot of land, near 
Germantown, to await the final summons to the resurrec- 
tion of the just. 

3. Henry Kumler, Sen. 

Henry Kumler, Sen., was of Swiss parentage, his father 
having been born in Switzerland. The family, on arriving 
in America, seems to have settled in Lancaster County, 
Pennsylvania. Henry was born on January 3, 1775. His 
parents being members of the Reformed Church, he was 
brought up in that church. About the year 1810 he 
removed to a farm near Greencastle, where his conversion 
occurred. In a brief sketch of his life^ he tells of the 
protracted struggle he had before he finally found the light. 
In 1813 he united with the Eastern Conference, and was 
licensed to preach. The session was held at Hagerstown, 
Maryland. The following year the conference convened at 
his house, and after this he frequently accompanied Henry 
G. Spayth, Abraham Mayer, and others on preaching tours. 
When the delegates for the first General Conference were 
elected, he was among the number chosen. Four years later, 
in 1819, he removed to Ohio, settling on a fertile farm, 
near Trenton, in Butler County. His residence remained 
here until death closed his career. In 1825 he was elected 
to the office of bishop, in which relation he served for five 
consecutive terms, a period of twenty years. Having 
reached the age of seventy-one, and being no longer able to 
perform the long horseback journeys required in those days, 
he was released from further continuance in that form of toil. 

He was the father of a large family, seven sons and 
five daughters. His oldest sons, Henry and Daniel C, 
became ministers, Henry becoming also a bishop. Ex- 
Bishop T>. K. Flickinger is a grandson of the first Bishop 

1 Unity Magazine, Vol. I., p. 161. 



THE FIB ST GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1815 237 

Kumler. A number of others of his descendants have 
risen to positions of distinction in civil and reHgious life. 
Bishop Kumler was an earnest preacher, soulful, tender, 
and effective. Socially, he was cheerful and agreeable, his 
conversation frequently abounding in pleasantries, a char- 
acteristic which has been strongly transmitted to his now 
very numerous family. With his general conversation he 
was accustomed to mingle earnest spiritual counsel. He 
preached throughout his life only in the German lan- 
guage, a few attempts at the English satisfying him that 
his ministry was not to find expression in that tongue. 
He was noted for his abounding generosity. It was 
not an unusual thing for him to entertain an entire con- 
ference at his house. He died on January 8, 1854, having 
just entered his eightieth year. His influence, with that 
of his family, contributed largely toward building up the 
United Brethren Church in southwestern Ohio. 

4.. Other Laborers. 

Daniel Troyer was another of the earlier pioneers of the 
Church. He was born in 1769, in Maryland. When a 
young man he was on an occasion an interested listener 
to Mr. Newcomer. He next attended a sacramental meet- 
ing at Antietam. Bishop Otterbein preached the sermon 
and conducted the service. At the close he invited all 
who desired the prayers of God's people to come forward 
and give him their hands. Many responded, weeping, 
among them Mr. Troyer, his joyful conversion following 
soon after. In 1806 he removed west, settling in the 
Miami Valley, Ohio. He was present at the organization 
of the Miami Conference in 1810, becoming one of its 
members. In 1812 he went into the active itinerant serv- 
ice. "As a preacher," wrote Eev. George Bonebrake, "he 
was, in his earlier years, a man of power. He had a 



238 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

very strong voice, and great zeal ; and at large meetings, 
when it became necessary to divide the congregation, the 
people would generally ask, ^ Where will Brother Troyer 
preach?' and on such occasions he always had his full 
share of the hearers."^ Prof. Henry Garst, D.D., of Otter- 
bein University, who was born and brought up near the 
home of Mr. Troyer, remembers him distinctly as he 
appeared in his old age. He describes him as short and 
heavy-set in person, with round face and kindly expression. 
Mr. Troyer lived to the great age of ninety-four years, 
dying in 1863. Dr. Garst says that "when the weight of 
years no longer permitted him to go to the house of 
worship, he requested that the class of which he was a 
member meet regularly at his home in Germantown." 
Dr. Garst, as a boy, "often attended these meetings, 
and vividly remembers how he used to be stirred by the 
words of instruction, warning, and encouragement Father 
Troyer, sitting in his great arm-chair, would utter." ^ 

Christian Berger became a member of the original con- 
ference as early as 1802. Mr. Spayth says that "his 
preaching commenced in Washington County, Pennsyl- 
vania, where the fruit of his preaching Christ, to use a 
figure, still waves in succession like a handful of corn on 
the top of the mountain. His voice was as one crying 
in the wilderness. . . . Indefatigable in his preaching, 
he was one of those brethren who endured much for the 
gospel, in weariness, painfulness, and watchings, a man 
tried in the fire. His hire was the salvation of souls. 
The great day will present his great reward."^ Mr. Spayth 
further described him as a man of most devout spirit, 
earnest, laborious, always in deep poverty, yet always 
cheerfully toiling. He was among the earliest of the 

> Lawrence's History, Vol. II., pp., 90, 91. 

^Pioneer Address, by Dr. Henry Garst, before the Miami Conference, 1896. 

^Spayth's History, p. 188. 



THE FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1815 239 

United Brethren ministers in western Pennsylvania, in 
Westmoreland and other counties, and in northeastern 
Ohio. His conversion occurred in a barn on the farm 
of a Mr. Dundore, in Berks County, Pennsylvania, the 
type of church-house in so common use in those earlier 
days, and in which so many souls were brought to the 
Saviour, who once was cradled in a manger. A meeting 
having been appointed, he hid himself in the loft to 
observe what would transpire below. As the meeting 
grew warm, the people were startled by loud cries and 
prayers from above. He was presently brought down, 
and ere long rejoiced in the new-found salvation. His 
ministerial career began soon afterward. His name ap- 
pears again as a member of the General Conference of 
1825. 

The name of Jacob Baulus is among those which appear 
the most frequently in the early church records, many 
allusions to him occurring in Newcomer's Journal. He 
was one of the most efficient of the preachers of Mary- 
land. In 1822 he removed west, settling near Fremont, 
Ohio. Mr. Lawrence, in speaking of him, says : " His 
home was located in the deep, dark forests of the Black 
Swamp. Wild game and wild men abounded. He was 
the first evangelical minister in that section of the coun- 
try ; and he not only preached to the new settlers when- 
ever opportunity was offered, but he opened his house and 
spread his table for evangelical ministers of all denomi- 
nations."^ By his early advent and labors in that part of 
the State of Ohio he became the father of the Sandusky 
Conference. The sturdy character of the men who gathered 
about him, as of those who have followed in their steps, 
indicates how wisely and efficiently he laid the foundations 
of the Church in that region. That part of the State 

1 Lawrence's History, Vol. II., p. 299. 



240 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

was originally included in the territory set off for the 
Muskingum Conference. 

George Benedum, one of the Ohio delegates in the 
General Conference of 1815, was among the early fruits 
of the revival in Pennsylvania. He became a minister 
among the United Brethren in 1794, being then in the 
twenty-ninth year of his age. In the year 1804 his name 
appeared for the last time as present at a session of the old 
conference, and his removal to Ohio must have occurred 
not long afterward. ''It is certain," says Mr. Lawrence, 
"that he was one of the first United Brethren evangelists 
in Ohio. Immediately after his settlement in the Scioto 
Valley he lifted up the standard of the cross, around which 
many of the early settlers were persuaded to rally." ^ Many 
precious fruits followed his preaching. Among his con- 
verts were some who afterward became well-known min- 
isters in the Church, as Dewalt Mechlin, a man of many 
labors and precious memory, Lewis Kramer, John Smaltz, 
and Bishop Samuel Hiestand. Mr. Benedum was present 
at the organization of the Miami Conference, and became 
one of its original members. 

Bishop Russel, in a sketch written for Mr. Lawrence, 
describes Mr. Benedum as a man of high-class natural 
endowments, with accurate judgment and fertile imagi- 
nation, and as a close student of the Scriptures, from 
which his sermons were enriched to an unusual degree. 
He preached wholly in the German language, and in the 
use of that tongue is said to have been a master. Bishop 
Edwards once said of him that "although he could not 
understand a sentence of the German language, yet he 
always became happy under his preaching." He traveled 
extensively, preached much, and gathered full harvests 
into the Master's garner, receiving of earthly compensation 

' Lawrence's History, Vol. II., p. 71. 



THE FIE ST GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1816 241 

but slight measure, but of the eternal in great abundance. 
He died on March 27, 1837, in the seventy-second year 
of his age, after having given forty-three years to the 
gospel ministry. 

Christian Crum, a member from Virginia in the first 
General Conference, was one of twin brothers, both min- 
isters, and both achieving an honorable record in the 
early work of the Church. His brother's name was Henry. 
They were brought up in the German Reformed Church, 
and preached in the German language. Christian, who 
became the more prominent of the two, is frequently 
mentioned in Newcomer's Journal. He was a man of 
recognized abilities and large usefulness. His death oc- 
curred in 1823. 

Abraham Mayer, whose name appears in the honored 
list of members of this first General Conference, joined 
the United Brethren Church, and soon afterward its min- 
istry, about the year 1796. He was of Mennonite extrac- 
tion, and continued to wear the dress of that people. He 
is described by Mr. Spayth as a man "of prepossessing 
appearance," and "in heart and life an Israelite indeed." 
He possessed fine gifts as a thinker and speaker. His 
home, not far from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, became a regulai* 
preaching place. At the first meeting held there, in May, 
1798, Boehm, Newcomer, Draksel, and Pfrimmer were 
present. While not a regular itinerant, he preached much, 
often making long tours to meet appointments which had 
been made for him. Mr. Spayth relates that on one such 
occasion, in 1813, the first appointment in a series being 
forty-five miles distant, he rode to within about four or 
five miles of the place, when he stopped at a farm-house 
to inquire the way. A lady, coming to the door, gave him 
the desired information, and then inquired if he was the 
man who was expected to preach at Mr. K.'s. To his 

16 



242 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

affirmative answer she replied, "But you do not look like 
one of our preachers ; to what church do you belong ? " 
Mr. Mayer answered, "The United Brethren." She mis- 
understood the answer, and on her husband's return 
reported that the minister who was to preach belonged 
to the Converted Brethren. " Converted Brethren ! " said 
he; "who ever heard of such a church?" But the lady 
proposed that they go and hear him preach. They did 
so, and the result was their own conviction and most 
happy conversion, many others in the neighborhood join- 
ing with them. 

Mr. Mayer was again a member of the General Con- 
ference in 1825, and in November of the following year 
went to his reward. He was in the sixty-fourth year of 
his age, and had given thirty years to the ministry 
of Jesus. 

The name of Henry G. Spayth is reserved for the last 
in this connection. He was a delegate from Virginia, and 
served as one of the secretaries of the conference. Mr. 
Spayth's name first appears on the roll of members of the 
Eastern Conference in 1812, the session for that year being 
held at Antietam. His first work as a minister w^as 
rendered in Maryland and Virginia. He removed to 
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, about the year 1815, 
probably soon after the session of the General Conference 
there. 

Mr. Spayth was endowed with superior gifts, especially 
in matters of counsel, and in this first General Conference 
exerted an important influence. The reader will remem- 
ber the quotation from his histor}^ respecting the conten- 
tions which darkened the earlier sessions of the conference, 
and also that after a season of fervent prayer the clouds 
were dispersed, and harmony reigned from that hour for- 
ward to the end. Mr. Spayth modestly omits to speak 



THE FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1815 243 

of the part he himself performed in bringing about the 
restoration of better feeling. Mr. Lawrence mentions that 
"at the moment when a rupture in that body seemed 
inevitable, and the powers of darkness were ready to 
shout a victory, Mr. Spayth arose and delivered an address, 
which, with the prayer-meeting that followed, resulted in 
a complete restoration of good feeling and a most happy 
termination of the difficulties."^ 

Mr. Spayth was returned to the General Conference at 
six subsequent sessions, namely, the second, fourth, sixth, 
eighth, ninth, and tenth. Possessing great strength of 
character, as well as sound judgment, he exerted much 
influence in these successive conferences, and it is remarked 
of him that "perhaps few men did more to shape the 
polity of the Church from 1815 to 1845, a period of thirty 
years." ^ 

Soon after his removal to "Westmoreland County, Penn- 
sylvania, Mr. Spayth became a member, after its forma- 
tion, of the Muskingum Conference, a conference whose 
star, through change in name, has disappeared from our 
ecclesiastical horoscope. Later he removed to Tiffin, Ohio, 
becoming, in 1835, a member of the Sandusky Conference. 
The chief work of Mr. Spayth 's life, that by means of 
which his memory will be longest preserved, was the 
writing of the first history of the United Brethren Church. ^ 
Mr. Spayth died at his home in Tiffin, September 2, 1873. 

* Lawrence's History^ Vol. II., p. 79. = See p. 282. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1817-1833 
I. THE SECOND GENERAL CONFERENCE 1817. 

The General Conference of 1815, while making distinct 
provision for quadrennial assemblies, deemed it wise, as 
has been seen, that the next succeeding session be held 
in two instead of four years. This was done apparently 
on account of some measure of uncertainty as to how the 
things done at the first session would be received by the 
Church. The second conference may therefore be regarded 
as in some sense an adjourned session of the first, while 
in fact it was a distinct conference, composed of delegates 
chosen by another election. 

The second General Conference, when it convened, 
happily found an entirely clear sky. The proceedings of 
the first conference had received the most cordial approval, 
first at the Miami Conference, which convened on June 
27, 1815, only a few weeks after the General Conference, 
and soon afterward at the conference of the East. This con- 
ference, therefore, had before it no embarrassing task of re- 
vising the acts of the first, but, on the other hand, addressed 
itself to the more pleasant labor of providing some val- 
uable additional features to the Rules of Discipline. These 
related in part to visitations from house to house and the 
enforcement of a practical Christianity, and to the in- 
struction of youth in the gospel of Christ. They provided 
also a completed form for the ordination of ministers, 
another for the ordination of bishops, and an excellent 
marriage ceremony. 

244 



THE GENEBAL CONFEBENCES OF 1817-1833 245 

The place of meeting of the General Conference was 
again at Mount Pleasant, in Westmoreland County, 
Pennsylvania ; the time June 2, 1817. Of the delegates 
elected only twelve assembled, namely, Christian New- 
comer and Andrew Zeller, bishops ; Abraham Mayer, 
Joseph Hoffman, John Snyder, Henry Kumler, Sen., Jacob 
Dehoff, L. Kramer, Dewalt Mechlin, Henry G. Spayth, L. 
Roth, and H. Ow. Mr. Spayth was again secretary, and 
Bishops Newcomer and Zeller were reelected for the 
succeeding term of four years. A new conference was 
formed, the Muskingum, including that portion of Ohio 
which lies east and north of the Muskingum River, 
with Washington and Westmoreland counties in Pennsyl- 
vania. One cannot help a feeling of regret that in the 
processes of rearrangement of territorial boundaries this 
historic conference, the third in the order of organiza- 
tion, and which gave to the Church some of its foremost 
men, has disappeared from the list of conference organi- 
zations. 

The business of this General Conference, as of its 
predecessor, and of a number of those coming after, was 
transacted in the German language. The minutes were 
recorded in German, but the conference directed that a 
translation of the revised Discipline should be made into 
English, and a hundred copies be printed in that tongue. 
So modest were the proportions of the English part of 
the Church at that time that one hundred copies were 
deemed sufficient to meet every requirement. 

The spirit in which the action of the General Conference 
relative to the ordination of ministers was received by the 
Church was well illustrated in the Miami Conference at 
the session next succeeding. By a unanimous vote of the 
conference the following names were presented as candi- 
dates for ordination by the laying on of hands : Christian 



246 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Crura, A. Hiestand, George Benedum, Andrew Zeller, 
Daniel Trover, H. ^liller, AV. P. Smith, and J. G. Pfrimmer. 
That nothing might be wanting in the observance of form 
as set forth in the New Testament, and now recognized 
by the highest authority in the Church, these men were, 
on the last day of the session, solemnly ordained to the 
office of elders in the Church, according to the formulas 
prescribed in the Discipline. First in the order, Bishop 
Newcomer, who himself had been ordained by Bishop 
Otterbein, laid his hands on the head of Christian Crum, 
and afterward proceeded, with the aid of Mr. Crum, to 
ordain the rest in like manner. Among them were men 
who had grown venerable in the office of the ministry, 
and one bishop. Mr. Newcomer himself had filled the 
office of bishop before his ordination by Bishop Otterbein. 

II. THE THIRD GENERAL CONFERENCE 1821. 

The General Conference of 1821, the third in the series, 
was held in Fairfield County, Ohio, at the home of Dewalt 
Mechlin, a local preacher of the Miami Conference. The 
time of assembling was May 15. The territory of the 
Church had again been divided into districts, as at the 
first, this time eight in number. Twenty-two delegates 
were elected, and seventeen were in attendance, as follows : 

Maryland District — Samuel Huber, ^Yilliam Brown. 

Carlisle — Michael Baer. 

Virginia — George Guething, Daniel Pfeifer. 

Miami — Henry Joseph Frey, Henry Evinger, Henry 
Kumler, Sen., Abraham Bonsler. 

Muskingum — Michael Bortsfield, A. Forney. 

New Lancaster — Lewis Kramer, Nathaniel Havens. 

Lower Lancaster — George Benedum, Joseph Hoffman. 

Indiana — John McNamar, John George Pfrimmer. 

Bishops Newcomer and Zeller presided. 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1817-1833 247 

Bute on Slavery Adopted. 

The conference, during the several days of its continuance, 
considered a variety of subjects, but no other action was 
taken which had so decided an influence upon the future 
character of the Church as that referring to slavery and the 
liquor traffic. On the subject of slavery strong resolutions 
were adopted and incorporated in the Discipline as a part of 
the law of the Church. The resolutions, translated from the 
German for the English edition of the Discipline, are as 
follows : 

Resolved, That all slavery, in every sense of the word, be totally 
prohibited and in no way tolerated in our community. Should some 
be found therein, or others apply to be admitted as members, who hold 
slaves, they can neither remain to be members nor be admitted as such, 
provided they do not personally manumit or set free such slave, where- 
ever the laws of the State shall permit it, or submit the case to the 
quarterly conference, to be by them specified what length of time such 
slave shall serve his master or other person, until the amount given for 
him, or for raising him, be compensated to his master. But in no 
case shall a member of our society be permitted to sell a slave. 

Resolved, That if any member of this society shall publicly trans- 
gress as aforesaid, such member shall likewise be publicly repri- 
manded, and in case such member shall not humble [himself], the 
same shall be publicly excluded from the congregation. 

The translation may not be said to be expressed in the 
best English, the German idiom being chiefly preserved, 
but there is nothing lacking in perspicuity or energy, and 
no opportunity was left, on account of indefiniteness, for 
any evasion of its provisions. 

The reader who is acquainted with the German language 
may be pleased to see this interesting law in its clear and 
strong expression as it was framed by the fathers of that 
day. The following is the original form : ^ 

^ For another version of this law, both in German and English, see Law- 
rence's History, Vol. II., pp. 143-145. The form there given is from a transcript 
made by J. G. Pfrimmer, who was a member of the General Conference of 
1821, and transcribed by Bishop Hiestand into the Journal of the Miami Con- 
ference. See pp. 96-103, Miami Conference Journal. 



248 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 



[offen, ba^ afle ©flaoerei, in rceld^em S^erftanb e§ aucf) immer fetn mag, 
in unferer ©emeinfcf)aft gangltd^ j)er6oten fei, unb auf feine SSeife errauBt fetn 
!ann. ©ollten ftc!) in nnferer ©emetnfd^aft einige befinben, ober anbere fief) rmU 
'iizn alg DJJitglieber angenommen §u rcerben, raelc^e ©flaoen l^aben, fo fonnen folrfie 
loeber ©(ieber bletben nocf) angenommen merben. ©g fei benn, ba^ fie fold^e ©!(a; 
t)en felbft frei fe^en, mo bie ©efe^e be§ ©taateS e§ erlau5en ober eg ber cierteljdl^r; 
lid^en (Sonfereng iiberlaffen gu Beftimmen, rcie lange ein folrfier ©flaoe enlraeber 
feinem 3}ieifter ober einem anbem bienen foil, bi§ fein 9[Retfter fiir bie 5t'often be§ 
2lnfauf§ ober ber ©rjte^ung SSergeltung erfialten tjai. 2lBer niemalg ift eg einem 
©tieb unferer @emeinfd)aft erIauBt einen ^liamn §u »er!aufen. 

Sef(f)Ioffen, ba^ menn fief) ein ©emeinbeglieb bffentUcf) fo cergei^et, fo foil i^m 
auc^ offentlicf) SSermeig gegeBen rcerben; unb rcenn eg fid^ nic^t bemiitiget, foil 
eg offentlid^ aug ber ©emeinbe auggefd^Ioffen merben. 

Thus at this early day, forty years before the breaking 
out of the great war for the perpetuation of slavery, these 
fathers of the Church raised this firm protest against the 
great iniquity. The institution was at that time rapidly 
rising toward that ascendency by which it afterward 
exerted so vast a power in corrupting the political and 
religious conscience, and dominating the legislation of the 
country. The rule thus adopted, while working seeming 
hardship in many cases, was rigidly adhered to by the 
Church. But a necessary result was, that while the Church 
was already well established in Maryland and Virginia, 
its growth in other States of the South was either greatly 
retarded or wholly prevented. But the rule gave the 
Church a high moral vantage ground in maintaining an 
attitude of protest against the great national sin, and 
when the final struggle came its people on both sides of 
the line were found solid in the cause of freedom and the 
support of the Government. 

Legislation on Temperance. 

On another subject of great national concern the voice 
of this General Conference was heard, namely, that of the 
manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors. The time 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1811-1833 249 

dates back to a period when the drink habit was almost 
universal, and when honored members of churches not only 
personally used intoxicating liquors freely, but also manu- 
factured them or sold them to others. 

The earliest expression of the Church on this subject 
was made by the Eastern Conference, as found in the 
Discipline of 1814 : 

Article 11. Every member shall abstain from, strong drink, and 
use it only on necessity as medicine. 

Familiar as we are at the present time with temperance 
legislation of the most decided character, this utterance, 
dating back to as early a time as 1814, with the social 
conditions then prevailing inside as well as outside of the 
churches, must be regarded as quite extraordinary. The 
provision is not repeated in the Disciplines for some years 
afterward, but the end aimed at reappears in the resolu- 
tion of 1821 and in subsequent legislation. In 1833 the 
legislation took a strong prohibitive form, applying, liow- 
ever, at first only to the ministerial class. In 1841 it 
took a broader form. 

The resolution adopted by the General Conference of 
1821, which, however, was not then embodied in the 
Discipline, reads as follows : 

Resolved^ That neither preacher nor lay member shall be allowed 
to carry on a distillery ; and that distillers be requested to willingly 
cease the business ; that the members of the General Conference be 
requested to lay this resolution before the several annual conferences ; 
that it shall then be the duty of the preachers to labor against the 
evils of intemperance during the interval between this and the next 
General Conference, when the subject shall again be taken up for 
further consideration. 

On this action Mr. Lawrence, in his History of the 
United Brethren Church, remarks: "If we may make a 
single exception, this is the earliest ecclesiastical action 
on record which was aimed at the suppression of the 



250 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

liquor traffic.^ The earliest action which has come under 
our notice was taken by the General Association of Massa- 
chusetts Proper, in 1811, at which time a committee, of 
which Eev. Dr. AVorcester was chairman, was appointed 
to draft the constitution of a society whose object should 
be to check the progress of intemperance, viewed by the 
association as a growing evil. It was not, however, until 
1813 that the contemplated society was organized and held 
a meeting. Associated with this movement were some of 
the most eminent men of New England, such as Hon. 
Samuel Dexter and Hon. Nathan Dane. ... It exerted 
no considerable influence outside of the New England 
States, and it was not until after the organization of the 
American Temperance Society, in 1826, that the evangel- 
ical Christian denominations entered into the movement. 
This was five years after the United Brethren General 
Conference, composed mainly of German preachers, had 
committed the United Brethren ministry in particular, and 
the United Brethren Church in general, to a decisively 
aggressive movement against intemperance."^ 

Thus this early action by the General Conference gave 
to the United Brethren Church, with reference to the tem- 
perance movement, a most honorable position, which in 
all its later legislation and history it has worthily main- 
tained. Many interesting instances occurred in which 
men, in view of the action of the General Conference on 
this subject, put away their distilleries or ceased to handle 
the forbidden beverage. Ex-Bishop Hanby, in Spayth's 
history of the Church, relates that in Lancaster County, 
Pennsylvania, about the year 1835, a man named Abraham 
Herr was converted during a revival in his neighborhood. 
He was a man of wealth, owning several farms and a 

^Mr. Lawrence apparently was unacquainted with the provision in the 
Discipline of 1814. « Lawrence's History, Vol. II., pp. 148, 149. 



THE GENERAL GONFEBENCES OF 1817-1833 251 

large distillery. Becoming awakened to the sin and evil of 
the manufacture of and traffic in intoxicating liquors, he 
removed the machinery from his distillery, remodeled it, 
and converted it into a house of worship. On the very 
spot where the kettles stood he erected a pulpit, so that 
thenceforth, instead of the fiery liquids for the destruction 
of men's bodies and souls, there issued forth the fountains 
of life.i 

In the subsequent legislation of the Church the rule 
was made equally prohibitive as to the use of ardent 
spirits as a beverage, so that the denomination became 
in effect a total abstinence society. 

Christian Newcomer and Joseph Hoffman were elected 
bishops by this conference. Bishop Newcomer having served 
from his first election in 1813. 

III. THE FOURTH GENERAL CONFERENCE 1825. 

The General Conference of 1825 convened at Jacob 
Shaup's, in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, on May 7. Bishops 
Newcomer and Hoffman presided. There were in attend- 
ance twenty-four members. Among these were six who had 
sat in the General Conference of 1815, namely. Christian 
Newcomer, Henry Kumler, Sen., Henry G. Spayth, Abraham 
Mayer, Christian Berger, and Andrew Zeller. John Hildt, 
a close associate of Bishop Otterbein, and the translator of 
Newcomer's Journal, occupied a seat in this conference. 
Ex-Bishop Andrew Zeller was a member. Others who 
were soon to fill a large place in the active service of the 
Church, as Samuel Hiestand, Jacob Antrim, Nathaniel 
Havens, and William Stewart, were also members. 

At this conference action was taken improving the 
questions for examination of candidates for the ministry, 
providing for compensation for bishops, and annulling the 

1 Spayth's History, p. 242. 



252 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

ritual for the ordination of bishops at induction into office. 
The bishops hitherto had performed all their service with- 
out pecuniary consideration. As long journeys between 
the eastern and western portions of the Church were re- 
quired in attending the conferences, besides a great amount 
of travel in visiting local neighborhoods and churches, 
the labor was often very burdensome. The rules required 
that a bishop from the East sit with a bishop of the 
West in holding a conference, and that a bishop residing 
in the West assist a bishop residing in the East in like 
manner. In these travels, as we have seen. Bishop New- 
comer spent the larger part of his life in the saddle. 
Horseback travel w^as the only method then available to 
the itinerant. But now that compensation was provided 
for, there was no danger that any would covet the office 
for the sake of the gains in prospect. The salary of a 
bishop was fixed, if married, at one hundred and sixty 
dollars a year, if single, at eighty, the same as that of the 
itinerant preacher. 

Christian Newcomer and Henry Kumler, Sen., were 
elected bishops. The following action was then taken 
touching the ordination of bishops : 

Resolved^ That as the newly elected bishop has already been 
ordained by the imposition of hands as an elder in the Church, a 
second ordination is not deemed essential to the duties of a bishop ; 
nor do we find a Scripture precedent for a second or third ordination. 

This abrogation of a measure adopted by the General 
Conference of 1815 for the ordination of bishops was 
timely, and in harmony with the simple ecclesiastical sys- 
tem of the Church, as well as with the New Testament, 
or apostolic, practice. The United Brethren Church thus 
recognized but a single order in its ministry, its bishops, 
though honored with high responsibility, being of the 
same class as their brethren in the ranks. 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1817-1833 253 

Bishop Kumler, who served so long and honorably in 
the bishop's office, a period of twenty-four years, has 
already been spoken of at some length in these pages. 

The separate organization of the Scioto Annual Con- 
ference was authorized by this General Conference, making 
the fourth annual conference. 

IV. THE FIFTH GENERAL CONFERENCE 1829. 

The fifth General Conference, that of 1829, was held at 
Dewalt Mechlin's, in Fairfield County, Ohio, commencing 
on May 15. Twenty-eight delegates, with two bishops, 
thirty members in all, were in attendance. The confer- 
ences represented were the Hagerstown, or Eastern, Miami, 
Muskingum, and Scioto. The bishops were Christian 
Newcomer and Henry Kumler, Sen. 

A special interest attaches to this conference from the 
fact that it was the last which the venerable Bishop 
Newcomer attended. He was now in his eighty -first year, 
but such was the stalwart character of the man that he 
once more undertook the long horseback journey from his 
home in the East to meet his official obligations as a 
bishop over the Lord's house. On April 10 he closed 
the session of the Eastern Conference ; on the 11th he 
bade farewell to his son Andrew's family, with whom 
he had resided since the death of his wife ; on the 28th he 
met the Muskingum Conference, presiding over its annual 
session ; on May 11 he met the Scioto Conference, presiding 
over that body, and on the 15th was ready for duty at 
the session of the General Conference. With Bishop 
Kumler he was again elected superintendent, but before 
quite another year had passed the Lord of the harvest, 
who calls the laborers to receive their dues, had called 
him to the eternal reward. 

Among the names appearing here for the first time in 



254 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

the General Conference annals are those of John Russel, 
William Brown, John Coons, and Jacob Erb, all of whom 
were at subsequent sessions chosen to the office of bishop. 
The division of the original conference of the East was 
authorized by this General Conference, the northern por- 
tion being called the Harrisburg Conference, afterward the 
Pennsylvania, and the southern portion the Hagerstown 
Conference, afterward the Virginia. The Miami Confer- 
ence was to yield again a portion of her territory, and 
the Indiana Conference was formed. 

V. THE SIXTH GENERAL CONFERENCE 1833. 

The General Conference of 1833 proved to be a session 
of great importance to the Church on account of several 
measures adopted by it. The conference was held at 
George Dresbach's, in Pickaway County, Ohio, commenc- 
ing on May 14. Bishop Henry Kumler, Sen., presided, 
and thirty-three delegates, representing six conferences, 
were present. The conferences were the Pennsylvania, the 
Virginia, the Muskingum, the Scioto, the Miami, and the 
Indiana. Henry G. Spayth, of the Muskingum, and 
William R. Rhinehart, then of the Virginia Conference, 
were elected secretaries. 

At this session the powers and limitations of the General 
Conference were discussed and more clearly defined. The 
subject of representation was considered, much interest 
being elicited in the discussion. The old plan of repre- 
sentation by districts was discontinued, and it was decided 
that each annual conference should be entitled to two 
delegates. The change effected by this arrangement was 
quite considerable. In this conference, for example, the 
Pennsylvania Conference had six delegates on the floor, 
the Scioto eight, the Miami seven, and the Indiana six. 
Under the new arrangement each of these conferences 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1811-1833 255 

would be entitled to but two. This question of repre- 
sentation became one of quite serious moment in subsequent 
years. 

Henry Kumler, Sen., was reelected, and Samuel Hiestand 
and William Brown were elected, to the office of bishop. 
The formation of the Sandusky Conference was authorized 
by this conference. The term of appointment to the 
presiding-eldership was reduced from four years to one 
year. The bishops, however, still retained the appointing 
power, as arranged by the General Conference of 1815, the 
annual conference consenting to the appointment. This 
appointing power remained with the bishops until 1841, 
when by act of the General Conference it was made the 
duty of the annual conferences to elect the presiding elders. 

This General Conference, as previously referred to, took 
important action relating to the manufacture and sale of 
intoxicating liquors. The reader will notice that this 
legislation was not then made to apply to all the mem- 
bership of the Church, the immediate purpose being "to 
purify the house of Levi." The following is the action : 

Should any exhorter, preacher, or elder, from and after the next 
annual conferences in 1834, be engaged in the distillation or vending 
of ardent spirits, he shall for the first and second offense be account- 
able to the quarterly or yearly conferences of which he is a member ; 
said conferences will in meekness admonish the offending brother to 
desist from the distillation or vending of ardent spirits, as the case 
may be; should these friendly admonitions fail, and the party 
continue to act in the same, and it be proven to the satisfaction 
of the yearly conference if a preacher or elder, or before the 
quarterly conference if an exhorter, such preacher, elder, or exhorter 
will for the time not be considered a member of this Church. 

A Publishing House Founded. 

But by far the most important action taken by this 
conference, the most far-reaching in its effects upon all 
the future of the Church, was that relating to the organiza- 



256 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

tion of a Church printing estabhshment. It was an early 
day for the pubhcation of denominational periodicals. 
Nearly all the great religious and church weeklies, which 
now fill so large a place in the literature of the world, 
are of later date. But the men who gathered in this 
conference foresaw the value of a paper in the progressive 
development and life of the Church, and they accordingly 
resolved to begin the publication of such a periodical. A 
board of trustees was elected, consisting of John Russel, 
Jonathan Dresbach, and George Dresbach, who were 
charged with the duty of carrying the will of the General 
Conference into effect. By resolution the establishment 
was to be located at Circleville, Ohio. In 1834, in accord- 
ance with this action of the General Conference, the trustees 
secured real estate in Circleville, purchased a press, type, 
and other necessary material, and established the Publish- 
ing House of the Church. The first periodical publication 
issued from the establishment, and for some years the only 
one, was the Religious Telescope. It appeared December 
31, 1834, as a semimonthly, at $1.50 a year, with William 
R. Rhinehart as editor. Of this and the subsequent growth 
of the publishing department of the Church more is to 
be said in these pages. 

VI. PERSONAL NOTES. 

1. Joseph Hoffman. 

Bishop Hoffman was born in Cumberland County, 
Pennsylvania, on March 19, 1780. He was of German 
parentage, was converted at the age of twenty-one, entered 
the ministry at twenty-two, and the itinerant ranks the 
year following. In 1814, after the death of Otterbein, he 
was appointed to the pulpit of the Otterbein Church, re- 
maining for three years. In 1818 he removed to Fairfield 



THE GENERAL CONFEBENCES OF 1811-1833 257 

County, Ohio, and later to Montgomery County, settling 
on a farm overlooking Dayton, now included in the city. 
Bishop Hoffman, though filling that office for but a single 
quadrennium, was a man of rare power in the pulpit. In 
person he was tall and straight, with an impressive face and 
commanding appearance. His voice possessed unusual 
power — deep-toned, mellow, and rich, with extraordinary 
strength when occasion called it forth. As an expounder 
of the Scriptures he held high rank, and his gifts of 
speech were such as to lay claim to high oratorical power. 
Mr. Spayth, writing of his earlier itinerant years, says that 
in him "the itinerant preacher was fully exemplified in 
labors abundant, even to excess. An originality and in- 
spired power characterized his preaching." His last visit 
to a session of the Miami Conference, with which he was 
connected, is remembered by some of the older members 
of that body. An address made by him to the ministers, 
exhorting them to fidelity in the Master's service, made 
a profound impression. He was then seventy-five years 
old, and when he expressed his belief that he was in their 
presence as a conference for the last time many hearts 
were touched. His premonitions proved to be correct. 
Before the conference assembled again, he had joined the 
hosts triumphant. His death occurred at Euphemia, Ohio, 
where the closing years of his life were spent. Bishop 
Hoffman preached with equal fluency in the English and 
German languages. 

2. Samuel Hiestand. 

The death of Christian Newcomer, in 1830, left Henry 
Kumler, Sen., to bear the responsibilities of the bishop's 
office alone. In 1833 the General Conference reelected 
him, and associated with him Samuel Hiestand and 
William Brown. 

17 



258 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Bishop Hiestand was born in Page County, A^irginia, 
March 3, 1781, his parents being members of the Moravian 
Church. They brought up their children in the fear of 
God, and three of their sons became ministers, all in the 
United Brethren Church. Samuel came west at the age of 
about twenty-three, finding a home in Fairfield County, 
Ohio. At the age of about thirty-nine, in 1820, he became 
a member of the Miami Conference, and entered upon the 
work of the ministry. When the conference was divided 
and the Scioto was formed, his residence in the Scioto 
district gave him membership in that conference. He was 
in attendance at the General Conference of 1821, and was 
chosen its secretary. He was a member of the General 
Conferences of 1825 and 1833, and at the latter was chosen 
one of the bishops of the Church. He was reelected in 
1887, but died on October 9 in the following year, in the 
fifty-seventh year of his age. As a member of the Gen- 
eral Conference of 1837 he had a hand in framing the 
constitution which was approved by that conference. 
Bishop Hiestand was a preacher of fair abilities, sometimes 
rising to great power. He was regarded as a safe counselor, 
and enjoyed in the highest degree the confidence and esteem 
of his brethren. His early death was much lamented. 

3. William Brown. 

William Brown, also of German descent, was born in 
Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, on July 7, 1796. He 
was converted at the age of sixteen at a "big meeting" 
held on Abraham Mayer's farm, near Carlisle, and at 
the age of twenty was granted license to preach. He 
entered the itinerant ranks, and gave many years of 
efi<ective service to the Church. He was much associated 
with Bishop Newcomer, Guething, Russel, and others of 
the most active men of that early period. He attained 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1817-1833 259 

to much power as a preacher of the word, and at "big 
meetings" and camp-meetings proved himself one of the 
most effective of evangelists. He was a delegate from 
the Pennsylvania Conference to the General Conference 
of 1833, and was by that conference chosen to the office of 
bishop, serving in that capacity four years. In 1838 he 
left his home in the East to establish himself in a new 
home in Benton County, Indiana. He continued in the 
itinerant work up to within a year of the close of his life, 
dying on May 11, 1868, at nearly seventy-two years of 
age. His early preaching was in the German language, 
and he continued to make visits to German neighborhoods 
and to preach to the people in their own language up to 
a late period in his life. His record is that of a faithful 
and devoted servant of the Master. 



Fifth Period— i837-i885 

CHAPTER XV 

THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1837 AND 1841 

I. THE SEVENTH GENERAL CONFERENCE 1837. 

The years 1837 and 1841 mark a pivotal period in the 
history of the United Brethren Church. The General 
Conference of 1837 convened on May 9, at Germantown, 
Montgomery County, Ohio. Bishops Kumler and Hiestand 
presided, Bishop Brown not being present. Bishop Hiestand 
preached the opening sermon, which was spoken of at the 
time as peculiarly appropriate, and was remembered the 
more from the fact that in the year following he closed 
his earthly labors. Eight annual conferences were repre- 
sented, as follows : 

Pennsylvania — Jacob Erb, Jacob Winter. 

Virginia — Jacob Rhinehart, J. J. Glossbrenner. 

Muskingum — Adam Hetzler, David Weimer. 

Sandusky — John Dorcas, George Hiskey. 

Scioto — John Coons, William Hanby. 

Miami — J. FetterhofF, William Stubbs. 

Indiana — F. Whitcom, John Lopp. 

Wabash — F. Kenoyer, William Davis. 

Among the measures adopted by the General Conference 
of 1837 was a "constitution for the better government of 
the Printing Establishment," the basis of the constitution 
of the House still found in the Discipline. John Russel, 
George Dresbach, and Jonathan Dresbach were reelected 
trustees for the establishment ; William R. Rhinehart was 

260 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1837 AND 1841 261 

elected editor of the Religious Telescope, and William 
Hanby publishing agent. 

Henry Kumler, Sen., and Samuel Hiestand were reelected 
bishops, and Jacob Erb was elected to succeed Bishop 
Brown, the latter having served four years. 

Adoption of a Constitution. 

The chief interest of the conference centered in the 
question of the adoption of a constitution for the Church. 
The draft of such an instrument had been prepared by 
William R. Rhinehart, and was by him submitted for 
consideration. On a motion made by Mr. Hanby it was 

Resolved, That a constitution for the better regulation of the 
Church be adopted. 

The way being thus prepared, Mr. Rhinehart's paper 
was taken up, considered item by item, and then unani- 
mously adopted. The Constitution embraced throughout 
such principles as had been before recognized in the 
government of the Church. The purpose in embodying 
these in a constitution was to give them the character 
of fundamental law, and to make any modification 
difficult. The provision, however, which was intended to 
so protect its several features against change was not a 
strong one, only a two-thirds vote of any General Con- 
ference being required for the passage of an amendment. 
In the Constitution afterward adopted in 1841, this was 
so changed as to make it extremely difficult to secure 
any amendment, a two-thirds majority vote of the entire 
Church being required for the ratification of an amend- 
ment. 

The following is the Constitution adopted in 1837 : 

We, as members of the United Brethren in Christ, in order to 
retain a perfect union, accomplish the ends of justice and equity, 
insure ecclesiastical as well as domestic tranquillity, provide for the 



262 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

common interest of the Ch.m'ch, promote the general welfare of 
society, and to secure the blessings of the gospel to om'selves, our 
posterity, and our fellow-men in general, do ordain and establish 
the following Constitution, for the Church aforesaid: 

AUTICLE I. 

Section 1. All ecclesiastical power herein granted, to make or 
repeal any rule of discipline, shall be vested in a General Conference, 
which shall consist of ministers chosen and elected by the members, 
in every conference district throughout the society. Nevertheless, 
nothing shall be done so as to change the article of faith or in any- 
wise destroy the itinerant plan. 

Sec. 2. ISTo minister shall be considered eligible for election until 
he has stood in the capacity as elder for the term of three years, 
having maintained a good moral character during that time. Any 
elder receiving a transfer from one conference to another shall not 
be considered eligible for election under a term of two years, and 
not then without a sufficient recommendation from the conference 
of which he had been a member. 

Sec. 3. The number of delegates from each conference district 
shall not exceed one for every five hundred members. But should 
it so happen that a conference would be formed in a territory not 
having five hundred members within its district, that conference 
shall nevertheless have one delegate to represent its members in 
General Conference. 

Sec. 4. If any vacancies should occur through sickness or other- 
wise, after the election of delegates, it shall be the duty of the pre- 
siding elder or elders immediately to notif^^ the next highest on the 
fist of votes that he is now a member to represent that district in 
the ensuing General Conference. 

Sec. 5. The bishops shall upon all occasions be considered mem- 
bers of the General Conference, to preside as the organs of that body 
as in annual conferences. Bishops shall be elected every four years, 
during the sitting of the General Conference, by the members of 
that body, from among the elders throughout the Church who may 
have stood in the capacity for a term not less than six yeai*s. 

Sec. 6. The General Conference shall be held once every four 
years ; at the adjournment of which it shall be the duty of the same 
to publish or cause to be published (excepting such parts as may 
not be considered expedient ) all their proceedings, for the benefit of 
society in general. 

ARTICLE II. 

Section 1. The members in each conference district shall solely 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1837 AND 1841 263 

have the privilege of choosing and electing the delegates for General 
Conference, which shall invariably be done at least three months 
previous to the sitting of the same. 

Sec. 2. In the election of delegates for General Conference, it 
shall be the duty of each annual conference to appoint a committee 
of three, in their several conference districts, to receive and count 
the votes, and immediately apprise those who may have been 
elected. 

Sec. 3. It shall also be the duty of the annual conference to 
furnish the presiding elders with a list of all the elders eligible for 
election. The presiding elders shall furnish each circuit preacher 
in charge, whose duty it shall be to furnish each class-leader or 
steward throughout the circuit with a copy of the same. 

Sec. 4. It shall be the duty of each class-leader or steward to 
appoint a meeting of the members of each class, for the purpose 
of electing, by ballot or otherwise, one or more delegates to represent 
them in General Conference. 

Sec. 5. It shall also be the duty of each class-leader or steward 
to sign, enclose, and seal each bill of election, hand it over to the 
preacher in charge; he again to the presiding elder, whose duty it 
shall be to transmit the same to the committee appointed by the 
annual conference. 

Sec. 6. The committee appointed to receive and count the votes 
shall make a list of all the persons voted for and the number of votes 
for each. Should any two or more of the candidates have an equal 
number of votes, the individuals thus appointed shall determine by 
lot who or which of them are elected. They shall also forward the 
names of those elected to the conference printing establishment for 
publication. 

abticle III. 

Section 1. Each annual conference shall come fully under the 
jurisdiction of the General Conference, except under such regula- 
tions as the General Conference may deem expedient in relation 
to local matters, so as not to prove prejudicial to the interest of the 
whole society. 

Sec. 2. The business of each annual conference shall strictly be 
done according to Discipline. 

Sec. 3. Any annual conference acting in violation of the doings 
of General Conference shall, by impeachment, be tried by the same. 

Sec. 4. No annual conference shall have the exclusive right to 
form or admit any new conference within the bounds of society, 
without the consent of the General Conference. 

Sec. 5. All officers, whether bishops, presiding elders, etc., shall, 



264 THE UNITED BBETHBEN IN CHRIST 

on impeachment, be dealt with according to Disciphne, as other 
members, expelled or retained, as the case may require. 

ARTICLE IV. 

Section 1. If at any time after the passing of this Constitution 
it should be contemplated either to alter or amend the same, it shall 
be the privilege of any member in society to publish or cause to be 
published such contemplation at least three months before the elec- 
tion of delegates to the General Conference. 

Sec. 2. No General Conference shall have the power to alter or 
amend the foregoing Constitution, except it be by a vote of two- 
thirds of that body. 

RESOLUTIONS. 

Inasmuch as it is the indefeasible right of every man to think and 
act for himself in matters of faith and morality, this right not only 
being granted by the charter of his creation, but also by the Disci- 
pline adopted for the better government of the Church of the United 
Brethren in Christ ; be it resolved, therefore, 

1. That no rule be adopted by General Conference so as to in- 
fringe upon the rights of any, as it relates to the mode and manner 
of baptism, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or the washing of 
feet, etc. 

2. Resolved^ No rule or ordinance shall be passed in General 
Conference so as to deprive the local preachers of the eligibility of 
election as delegates to the same; nor yet to deprive them of their 
legal vote in the annual conferences to which they severally 
belong. 

3. Resolved^ That the foregoing resolutions shall neither be altered 
or appealed without the unanimous consent of the whole confer- 
ence. 

Done in General Conference by the unanimous consent of that 
body, this 11th day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and thirty-seven. In witness whereof, we have here- 
unto set our names. 

Henry Kuiviler, ? t,. , George Hiskey. 



Samuel Hiestand, ) ^ ^ ' John Coons. 

Jacob Erb. William Hanby. 

Jacob Winter. John Fetterhoff. 

Jacob Rhinehart. William Stubbs. 

Jacob J. Glossbrenner. Francis Whitcom. 

Adam Hetzler. John Lopp. 

David Weimer. Frederick Kenoyer. 

John Dorcas. AVilliam Davis. 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1837 AND 1841 265 

The General Conference, in adopting this Constitution, 
had some doubts as to its power to Hmit the preroga- 
tives of future General Conferences, as is done in Article 
IV., Section 2. It was therefore deemed wise to address 
a circular letter to the Church at large, giving notice that 
a memorial would be presented to the next General Con- 
ference praying for the ratification of this Constitution, or 
particularly of the restriction contained in the article and 
section referred to. The letter is as follows : 

To the Members of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ 
throughout these United States: 

Dear brethren, by whose authority we, as a General Conference, 
have been authorized to legislate on matters pertaining to the gov- 
ernment of our Church, and having long since been convinced of the 
great necessity of a constitution for the better regulation thereof, 
have, by unanimous consent, framed and established the foregoing. 
We are well aware that we have transcended the bounds given us 
by our Discipline, which [transcending of bounds] will be found 
in the Constitution, Article IV., Section 2, declaring that the said 
Constitution can neither be altered or amended without a majority 
of two-thirds of a General Conference. If there had been a general 
notice given to the Church previous to the election of delegates, that 
there would be a memorial offered to General Conference, pray- 
ing them to adopt a constitution, and to ratify it agreeably to Article 
IV., Section 2, then the General Conference would have had fuU 
power to have done so. The object of this circular is ( feeling that the 
government of our Church is not as firm as it ought to be ) to give 
notice to our Church throughout the Union that we intend to present 
a memorial to the next General Conference, praying them to ratify 
the Constitution now adopted, according to [making it binding 
under] Article IV., Section 2, in testimony of our ardent desire for 
the welfare of our Church, and the general spread of the gospel. 

Written by order of General Conference, Germantown, Ohio, 
May 12, 1837. 

Signed in behalf of the same by 

William R. Rhinehart, Secretary. 

The terms of this Constitution did not require its sub- 
mission to the Church for approval by a popular vote. It 
was the purpose of this letter, however, to bring it to the 



266 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

consideration of the people, so that in voting for delegates 
to the next General Conference they might choose their 
delegates with reference to further contemplated action 
on the Constitution. 

The reader will at once be struck with the somewhat 
ambiguous or doubtful character of some portions of this 
circular. The impression upon first reading will generally 
be that the General Conference entertained doubts as to its 
power to adopt a constitution. A second reading will lead 
to the conclusion that the feeling of doubt did not apply to 
the Constitution as a whole, but to that particular feature 
which proposed to limit the powers of future General 
Conferences. 

It will be of interest here to reproduce the comment of 
Ex-Bishop Hanby, editor of the Religious Telescope in 1839. 
In an editorial in that year, two years before the General 
Conference of 1841, in reply to a question by Rev. William 
R. Coursey, Mr. Hanby indicates conclusively what the 
mind of the General Conference of 1837 was as to its 
powers. Their action was considered as final, except in 
regard to the article and section as above. The following 
is what Mr. Hanby, a member of the General Conference 
of 1837, said: 

"Here we must confess that we do not understand 
Brother Coursey, unless he is of the opinion that the 
present Constitution is void and of no effect. If so, we 
think he is mistaken. It was not, by any means, con- 
sidered that the Constitution would be null and void for 
four years, and that therefore a petition should be offered to 
the next General Conference, praying for the enactment of 
a certain specification, as set forth in the circular of the 
Discipline. General Conference did by no means doubt 
their right to gather up the detached principles of govern- 
ment as contained in the Discipline and throw them to- 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1837 AND 1841 267 

gether in the form of a constitution, and even make 
amendments to them, but they did doubt the right of de- 
claring that that Constitution should be neither altered nor 
amended without a majority of two-thirds of a General 
Conference, and that was, we think, the only object of the 
circular, and that is the only specification set forth in the 
circular. Presuming, then, that the Constitution is equally 
valid with other parts of the Discipline, w^e refer Brother 
Coursey to the second article in the Constitution as ex- 
hibiting a satisfactory manner of procedure." 

II. THE EIGHTH GENERAL CONFERENCE 1841. 

The General Conference of 1841, regarded from the 
historical standpoint, occupies a place among the most 
important of the entire series of General Conferences, its 
special distinction being that of framing and adopting a 
constitution for the Church which was accepted for a period 
of nearly a half century. This conference assembled on the 
10th of May of that year, at Dresbach's Church, in Pick- 
away County, Ohio. The conference consisted of twenty- 
three ministers, including two bishops. The bishops were 
Henry Kumler, Sen., and Jacob Erb. The delegates and 
the conferences they represented were as follows : 

Pennsylvania — John Pussel, Jacob Hoop. 

Virginia — J. J. Glossbrenner, W. P. Coursey. 

Allegheny — J. Pitter, G. Miller. 

Muskingum — Alexander Biddle, James McGaw. 

Sandusky — Henry G. Spayth, George Hiskey. 

Scioto — William Hastings, John Coons, J. Montgomery, 
E. Vandemark. 

Miami — Henry Kumler, Jun., Francis Whitcom. 

Indiana — Henry Bonebrake, Joseph A. Ball, J. G. 
Eckels. 

Wabash— Josiah Davis, William Davis. 



268 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

A Second Constitution Adopted. 

To what extent the delegates to this General Conference 
may have regarded themselves as being instructed in 
respect to the approval of the Constitution as framed in 
1837, does not appear. The circular letter which was sent 
to the Church distinctly contemplated the ratification of 
this Constitution, under its final article, after due me- 
morials to the General Conference, as appears in the follow- 
ing announcement : "The object of this circular is (feeling 
that the government of our Church is not as firm as 
it ought to be) to give notice to our Church through- 
out the Union that we intend to present a memorial 
to the next General Conference, praying them to ratify 
the Constitution now adopted, according to Article IV., 
Section 2." This provision of the circular seems to have 
been entirely passed by. The Constitution as framed and 
unanimously approved by the General Conference of 1837, 
and, with the accompanying circular, laid before the people, 
certainly was not ratified, as contemplated. There is no 
evidence that it was even considered. The General Con- 
ference, according to the terms of the Constitution and of 
the circular, had power to do but one of two things, that 
is, to ratify or reject. Far from this, the conference 
passed by both the Constitution and the circular and 
proceeded de novo to form a constitution. 

In general, the essential features of the instrument of 
1837 reappear in that of 1841, in rearranged, condensed, 
and greatly changed form, while some new features are 
added. The provision against possible hasty amendment 
is taken from the General Conference and transferred to 
the people of the entire Church, requiring, as before, a two- 
thirds majority to sustain any proposed alteration or 
amendment. A very important feature, that providing 
for pro rata representation, is entirely eliminated. The 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1837 AND 1841 269 

provisions against secret societies and slavery are new 
matter. The instrument, in its general expression, is a 
decided improvement upon that of 1837. The just criti- 
cism against the attitude of this General Conference lies 
in its assumption of final authority, as against the declara- 
tion of the General Conference of 1837. That conference 
recognized the principle of submission to the people, who 
should have a voice through the delegates whom they 
would elect, either for or against ratification. This con- 
ference assumed the authority to declare its work final, 
without submission to the people, and so provided as to 
make all future amendment difiicult. Nevertheless, this 
Constitution, so framed and adopted, acquired, by the 
silent acquiescence of the Church, probably all the validity 
inherent in fundamental law, and as such remained in 
full force until, in 1885-89, it was amended by the con- 
current action of the General Conference and the Church 
at large. 

The following is the text of the Constitution of 1841 as 
adopted : 

We, the members of the Church of the United Brethren in 
Christ, in the name of God, do, for the perfecting of the saints, for 
the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, as 
well as to produce and secure a uniform mode of action, in faith and 
practice, also to define the powers and the business of quarterly, 
annual, and general conferences, as recognized by this Church, or- 

)f Constituti 

ARTICLE I. 

Section 1. All ecclesiastical power herein granted, to make or 
repeal any rule of discipline, is vested in a General Conference, which 
shall consist of elders, elected by the members in every conference 
district throughout the society ; provided, however, such elders shall 
have stood in that capacity three years, in the conference district 
to which they belong. 

Sec. 2. General Conference is to be held every four years; the 
bishops to be considered members and presiding officers. 



270 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Sec. 3. Each annual conference shall place before the society 
the nanaes of all the elders eligible to membership in the General 
Conference, 

ARTICLE n. 

Section 1. The General Conference shall define the boundaries of 
the annual conferences. 

Sec. 2. The General Conference shall, at every session, elect 
bishops from among the elders throughout the Church who have 
stood six years in that capacity. 

Sec. 3. The business of each annual conference shall be done 
strictly according to Discipline; and any annual conference acting 
contrary thereto shall, by impeachment, be tried by the General 
Conference, 

Sec. 4. No rule or ordinance shall at any time be passed to 
change or do away the Confession of Faith as it now stands, nor to 
destroy the itinerant plan. 

Sec. 5. There shall no rule be adopted that will infringe upon the 
rights of any as it relates to the mode of baptism, the sacrament of 
the Lord's Supper, or the washing of feet. 

Sec. 6. There shall be no rule made that will deprive local 
preachers of their votes in the annual conferences to which they 
severally belong. 

Sec. 7. There shall be no connection with secret combinations, 
nor shall involuntary servitude be tolerated in any way. 

Sec. 8. The right of appeal shall be inviolate, 

ARTICLE III, 

The right, title, interest, and claim of all property, whether con- 
sisting in lots of ground, meeting-houses, legacies, bequests, or dona- 
tions of any kind, obtained by purchase or otherwise, by any person 
or persons, for the use, benefit, and behoof of the Church of the 
United Brethren in Christ, is hereby fully recognized and held to 
be the property of the Church aforesaid. 

ARTICLE IV. 

There shall be no alteration of the foregoing Constitution, unless 
by request of two-thirds of the whole society. 

The voice of the conference in the final adoption of 
this Constitution is not officially recorded. According to 
the best authorities, the vote was not unanimous, but the 
motion to adopt was carried by a large majority. 



THE GENERAL CONFEBENCES OF 1831 AND 1841 271 
The Confession of Faith. 

This General Conference made some slight changes in 
the Confession of Faith, as other General Conferences had 
done before. This was in accordance with the principle 
that the General Conference, as the highest authority then 
recognized in the Church, possessed final authority on this 
and all other subjects connected with its system of doctrine 
or rules of practice. This same conference, however, went 
a step beyond this and embodied in the Constitution a 
restrictive clause intended to prohibit all future changes 
in the Confession of Faith. This prohibition was not 
strictly observed. Slight amendments of a verbal character 
were afterward introduced in the Confession of Faith 
by the General Conference of 1857. For a full view of 
amendments see the pamphlet by Drs. A. W. Drury and 
J. P. Landis entitled "The Confession of Faith of the 
United Brethren in Christ — Its Various Changes."^ 

The following is the Confession of Faith as approved 
by the General Conference of 1841 : 

In the name of God we declare and confess before all men, that we 
believe in the only true God, the Father, the Son, and Holy 
Ghost; that these three are one — the Father in the Son, the Son in 
the Father, and the Holy Ghost equal in essence or being with both ; 
that this triune God created the heavens and the earth, and all that 
in them is, visible as well as invisible, and furthermore sustains, 
governs, protects, and supports the same. 

We believe in Jesus Christ ; that he is very God and man ; that 
he became incarnate by the power of the Holy Ghost in the Virgin 
Mary, and was born of her ; that he is the Saviour and Mediator 
of the whole human race, if they with full faith in him accept the 
grace proffered in Jesus ; that this Jesus suffered and died on the 
cross for us, was buried, arose again on the third day, ascended into 
heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God, to intercede for us ; 
and that he shall come again at the last day, to judge the quick 
and the dead. 

We believe in the Holy Ghost ; that he is equal in being with the 

^See also Appendix I. 



272 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Father and the Son, and that he comforts the faithful, and guides 
them into all truth. 

We believe in a holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, 
the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. 

We believe that the Holy Bible, Old and New Testaments, is 
the word of God ; that it contains the only true way to our 
salvation ; that every true Christian is bound to acknowledge and 
receive it with the influence of the Spirit of God as the only rule 
and guide; and that without faith in Jesus Christ, true repent- 
ance, forgiveness of sius, and following after Christ, no one can be 
a true Christian. 

We also believe that what is contained in the Holy Scriptures, to 
wit, the fall- in Adam and redemption through Jesus Christ, shall be 
preached throughout the world. 

We believe that the ordinances, viz., baptism and the remem- 
brance of the sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, are to be 
in use, and practiced by all Christian societies ; and that it is incum- 
bent on all the children of God particularly to practice them ; but 
the manner in which ought always to be left to the judgment and 
understanding of every individual. Also the example of washing 
feet is left to the judgment of every one, to practice or not ; but it is 
not becoming for any of our preachers or members to traduce any 
of his brethren whose judgment and understanding in this respect 
are different from his own, either in public or private. Whosoever 
shall make himself guilty in this respect shall be considered a 
traducer of his brethren, and shall be answerable for the same. 

Other Business. 

In the legislation on temperance an important advance 
was taken by this conference upon the ordinance of 1833, 
the manufacture and sale of ardent spirits being pro- 
hibited to all the members of the Church. The opening 
sentence of the section reads, "The distilling and vending 
of ardent spirits shall hereafter be forbidden throughout 
our whole society." Druggists and others selling only for 
medicinal or mechanical purposes were exempted from this 
prohibition. 

This conference elected William Hanby editor of the 
Religious Telescope, and Jonathan Dresbach, George Dres- 
bach, and William Leist trustees of the Printing Establish- 



THE GENERAL CONFEBENCES OF 1837 AND 1841 273 

merit. A parent missionary board was also elected, and 
the conference resolved that a German paper be established 
at Baltimore, Maryland. The name of the paper was to be 
Die Geschdftige Martha (Busy Martha). Jacob Erb was 
elected editor and financial manager. This was the be- 
ginning of the present Der Frbhliche Botschafter. Henry 
Kumler, Sen., and Jacob Erb were reelected bishops, and 
Henry Kumler, Jun., and John Coons were also chosen 
to the bishop's office. The conference continued in session 
ten days, and the meeting is spoken of as having been 
remarkably harmonious and pleasant. The earlier General 
Conferences were able to transact their business in brief 
periods of time. That of 1815, the initial General Con- 
ference, sat for five days ; those of 1817 and 1825 three 
days each ; and those of 1821 and 1829 each four days. 

III. PERSONAL NOTES. 

1. Jacob Erb. 

Jacob Erb, who succeeded William Brown in the office 
of bishop, was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 
on May 25, 1804. His parents on both sides were of 
Swiss origin, and of Mennonite antecedents. Two brothers 
of his mother. Christian and Abraham Hershey, were 
United Brethren ministers. He was converted at the age 
of sixteen at a meeting in his father's house, a regular 
preaching place for the United Brethren. At the age 
of nineteen he became a member of the Hagerstown, or 
original, Conference, and was sent to work on the Lan- 
caster Circuit, a charge then having thirty appointments, a 
number which he soon increased to forty. At the age of 
twenty-one he went as a missionary to western New York 
and Canada, planting some of the early outposts of the 
Church. In July, 1830, he baptized in the Susquehanna 

18 



274 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

River, at Harrisburg, Elder John Winebrenner, the founder 
of the Church of God, or Winebrennarians, as the follow- 
ers of j\Ir. Winebrenner were long called. Mr. Erb and 
Mr. Winebrenner were close friends, and had frequently 
been associated together in revival meetings. 

In 1829 Mr. Erb, then twenty -five years of age, was 
elected a delegate to the General Conference, and again in 
1833 and 1837. The latter conference elected him to the 
bishop's office. In this relation he served for two terms, 
and was again elected in 1849 for another term of four 
years, making his time of service twelve years in all. 
From 1841 to 1842 he was editor and publisher of Die 
Geschdftige Martha, published in Baltimore by order of 
the General Conference. Bishop Erb lived through a 
long and busy life, dying on April 29, 1883, at almost 
seventy-nine years of age. Sixty years of his life were 
given to the ministry of the word, and during all this 
period he never failed to attend a single session of his 
conference, except the last, when the feebleness of old 
age forbade his being present. He did not, however, 
forget his brethren, but wrote to the conference a letter 
that was full of the cheer and hopefulness which so 
strongly characterized his Christian life. "I love to look 
back," said he, "and see the progress which we as a 
church have made." Then, referring to some of the 
special departments of church work, he continued : " I 
thank God that I have lived to see this day, which 
presents such grand monuments of substantial growth of 
the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. ... A 
kind Heavenly Father granted to me the privilege of 
attending, in consecutive order, sixty annual sessions of 
the Pennsylvania Conference. Could I be present with 
you, this would be my sixty-first. My faith in God is 
strong, my confidence in his word unshaken, and I know 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1831 AND 1841 275 

by personal experience that there is a power in true 
religion. The future of a blessed life is to me full of hope 
and promise. God is my refuge and my strength."^ 

Bishop Erb was a man of medium height, possessed a 
fine face, in which the lineaments of his nationality were 
well preserved, was a man of habitually cheerful spirit, 
preached by preference in the German language, and was 
often emotional, tender, and impressive. Between the duties 
of a circuit preacher, presiding elder, stationed pastor, and 
bishop, he passed a busy and useful life, and was laid to 
rest in an honored grave. Bishop Dickson officiated at the 
funeral service. His remains sleep in a cemetery near 
Shiremanstown, Pennsylvania. 

2. Henry Kumler, Jun. 

Henry Kumler, Jun., son of the elder Bishop Henry 
Kumler, was elected by the General Conference of 1841 to 
the office of bishop. By his election there was presented the 
unusual spectacle of a father and son occupying this high 
office at the same time. He was born in Lancaster County, 
Pennsylvania, on January 9, 1801, and was now just forty 
years of age, and in the prime of his physical and intel- 
lectual vigor. The elder bishop, we have already seen, 
was of Reformed antecedents ; the mother was of the 
Mennonite Church. The conversion of the father, about 
the year 1812, led to the entire family's becoming members 
of the United Brethren Church. Young Henry's conver- 
sion occurred when he was about eleven years of age. At 
fourteen he became leader of a class some three and a 
half miles from his home. At nineteen he was licensed 
to preach, his credentials being signed by Bishop New- 
comer. To his subsequent great regret he did not for 
sixteen years enter unreservedly upon the work of the 

1 Dr. H. A. Thompson's Our Bishops, pp. 237, 238. 



276 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

ministry, enduring what he afterward called "Egyptian 
servitude." Breaking away at last from the worldly 
trammels which hindered him, and giving himself with 
a complete consecration to the work, he began a career 
of much usefulness to the Church and of great joy to 
himself. When he was eighteen years of age, his father 
with all the family removed west, establishing a new home 
in Butler County, Ohio. Henry, after his marriage, chose 
a home near Lewisburg, in Preble County, and here the 
greater part of his life was spent. He became a member 
of the Miami Conference, served for many years as pre- 
siding elder, and w^as a number of times sent as a delegate 
to the General Conference. His earnestness and energy 
made so favorable an impression upon the General Confer- 
ence of 1841 that he was by that body chosen as bishop. 
After one term of service he entered again the itinerant 
field, to be reelected in 1857 as bishop of the German con- 
ferences. He declined this election, and was again chosen 
for the same office in 1861. In 1865 the office of bishop 
of the German w^ork was discontinued. 

Bishop Kumler was a man of robust physical frame 
and of impressive personal presence. He was a vigorous 
thinker, and an earnest defender of any position he 
espoused. In the annual or General Conference no man 
was ever more constantly on the alert, not a w^ord spoken 
by friend or opponent ever escaping his attention. On 
some questions he was conservative, on others progressive 
in the best sense. In the prolonged controversies on the 
secret-society question he was with the radicals, though 
it may be doubted whether, if he had lived to the time 
of the radical secession, he would have surrendered his 
connection with the Church he so long toiled to build 
up. He was intensely loyal to the Church, and sought 
unceasingly to build up her interests. Personally, Bishop 




^m 



Joseph Hoffman, 



William Bkown. 





Jacob Erb. 



Henry Kumler, Jun, 





John Coons. 



John Russel. 





William Hanby, 



Lewis Davis. 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1837 AND 1841 277 

Kumler was of a sunny disposition, fond of pleasantry 
and humor, qualities which he inherited from his father. 
As an antagonist in debate, he often struck hard blows, 
but with so much good humor and genuine kindliness of 
heart that one might deem it quite as agreeable to be 
opposed to as in agreement with him. In his religious 
life he was deep, sincere, and earnest. His last years 
were spent in Dayton, where several of his children live. 
Among these is Mrs. D. L. Rike, so widely known from 
her connection with the woman's missionary work, and 
Mr. S. E. Kumler, who rendered so valuable service recently 
in the work of relieving Otterbein University from its 
long embarrassment. Bishop Kumler died August 19, 
1882, in the eighty-second year of his age. His remains 
were laid to rest by the side of his wife and other mem- 
bers of his family in the United Brethren burying-ground 
at Lewisburg. Rev. C. Schneider, pastor of the German 
United Brethren church, preached his funeral sermon in 
Dayton, in German, followed by Bishop Glossbrenner in 
English. Dr. L. Davis preached a sermon in the church 
at Lewisburg to the bishop's old neighbors and friends. 

S. John Coons. 

In the same year in which the younger Kumler was 
elected bishop, John Coons was also chosen to that office, 
so that the episcopal board now stood, Henry Kumler, 
Sen., Jacob Erb, Henry Kumler, Jun., and John Coons. 
Mr. Coons was born in Martinsburg, Virginia, on October 
25, 1797, and when about ten years of age was brought 
by his parents to Ross County, Ohio. He was converted 
at the age of twenty-four under the labors of the noted 
revivalist Jacob Antrim, of the Miami Conference. He 
soon began to preach, and in the year following, 1822, 
was received into membership in the Miami Conference. 



278 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

He was ordained as an elder in the Church on May 
18, 1826, by Bishops Christian Newcomer and Henry 
Kumler, Sen. On the division of the Miami Confer- 
ence his residence placed him within the bounds of the 
Scioto, but on removing in 1845 to the Miami Valley he 
again became a member of the Miami Conference. He 
was chosen a delegate from the Scioto Conference to each 
of the General Conferences from 1829 to 1841, thus being 
a member of the body which framed and adopted the 
Constitution of 1837, and again of the conference which 
formed the Constitution of 1841. In the office of bishop, 
to which this conference elected him, he served only a 
single term. Throughout his life he was lacking in robust 
health, and the hard service required in the bishop's office 
placed too heavy a strain upon his physical strength. His 
latest residence after his removal to the Miami Valley 
was in the city of Dayton, and here his death occurred 
on August 7, 1869, he being then in the seventy-second 
year of his age. 

Bishop Coons is remembered by many of the older 
members of the Church as a man of fine personal pres- 
ence. He was tall, straight in form, dignified in carriage, 
dark in complexion, with keen, expressive eyes, set under 
deep, arching eyebrows, and in the pulpit was an elegant 
figure. He was a man of sound judgment, without the 
aggressiveness of one born to lead, but his opinions on 
any important question were sought for and respected. 
In utterance he was strong, clear, and engaging, so that 
as a preacher he was everywhere warmly welcomed ; in 
private life he was afiable and agreeable, so that among 
the people whom he visited he was gladly received. A 
large portion of his service to the Church was rendered 
in the office of presiding elder. To the living who knew 
him his name remains as an honored treasure. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1845 AND 1849 
I. EXTENDING THE BOUNDARIES, 

The period from 1841 forward marks a rapid expansion 
of the Church, especially in the newer regions westward. 
In all of the conferences, now nine in number, there was 
much activity, but some of them were reaching out into 
districts far beyond their original limits. The Wabash 
Conference, for example, which, at its organization in 1835, 
embraced all of northern Indiana, was now extending its 
boundaries until it included all of the State of Illinois, 
with outposts in Iowa and Wisconsin. Starting with 
twelve ministers and six charges, it reported in 1842 fifty 
preachers, thirteen applicants for license, and some twenty 
circuits and missions. So earnestly was the work pressed 
forward that in the year 1842 there were reported net gains 
in membership amounting to two thousand one hundred 
and forty-four. At the session of the Sandusky Conference 
for the same year there appeared fifteen applicants for 
license to preach. The number of ministers in this con- 
ference had advanced in ten years from twenty-five to 
sixty-one. Hevival meetings of great power were occur- 
ring in many places, and large numbers were being added 
to the Church. This expansion of the work was largely 
encouraged by the organization of local or home mis- 
sionary societies within a number of the annual confer- 
ences. These societies were preparing the way for the 
formation of the central and more far-reaching organiza- 

279 



280 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

tion, the Home, Frontier, and Foreign Missionary Society, 
in 1853. The previous provision of the General Confer- 
ence for the organization of a general missionary society, 
already referred to, had proved ineffectual, while the work 
of local organization continued. These local societies, by 
providing means for the extension of home and frontier 
work, proved very efficient in pushing the work into 
regions where the name of the United Brethren Church 
had not before been heard of. 

Up to this time, and for some years later, no general 
statistics of the Church were preserved, the neglect growing 
out of a traditional feeling that Zion should not be num- 
bered. The number of ministers and of circuits or charges 
was kept. A table prepared by Bishop Hanby from the 
reports for 1845 shows that in the five years preceding 
there was an advance from three hundred and eighty-seven 
ministers to five hundred and eighty-one, an increase of 
one hundred and ninety-four, and in charges from ninety 
to one hundred and eighty, the number being just doubled.^ 
The lay membership, as estimated by the best authorities, 
was about thirty thousand. 

II. THE NINTH GENEKAL CONFERENCE 1845. 

The General Conference of 1845 gave attention chiefly 
to such routine business as comes up at any session, but 
it also gave proof of a progressive spirit, as will presently 
be seen. The conference was held at Circleville, Ohio, 
commencing on May 10. The nine annual conferences 
were represented by twenty-four delegates. The list of 
names shows a number of strong men as members of this 
conference. In addition to the Kumlers, father and son, 
as bishops, we find the names of Russel, of Pennsylvania, 
and Glossbrenner and Markwood, of Virginia, all of whom 

1 See Spayth's History, p. 289. 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1845 AND 1849 281 

became bishops, each giving great distinction to the office. 
Another member from Virginia was J. Bachtel, one of the 
most courageous men who ever stood with a small minority 
in defense of principles in which he believed. From 
Muskingum Conference was Alexander Biddle, the only 
surviving member of this General Conference, as also of 
the historic conference of 1841. From Scioto were E. 
Vandemark and Joshua Montgomery ; from Miami, George 
Bonebrake ; from Indiana, Henry Bonebrake. All of these 
men were accounted as "giants in those days," and some 
of them for many years afterward. 

This conference has the distinction of being the first 
to lead in the encouragement of education in the Church. 
A resolution was adopted, providing that suitable measures 
be devised for the establishment of an institution of learn- 
ing, and commending the subject to the favorable attention 
of the annual conferences. This resolution, after full dis- 
cussion, was happily adopted by a nearly unanimous vote. 
The subject will be found more fully referred to in an 
appropriate place in this volume. 

In its election of general church officers this conference 
made radical changes. On counting the ballots for bishops 
it was found that an entirely new board had been elected, 
namely, J. J. Glossbrenner, John Russel, and William 
Hanby. David Edwards, afterward Bishop Edwards, suc- 
ceeded Mr. Hanby as editor of the Religious Telescope, and 
the paper was ordered to be issued weekly. 

An important step was taken in providing a course of 
reading for licentiates in the ministry. This was the 
beginning of what has since grown into a very complete 
system of study, and of inestimable value in the equip- 
ping of young men for the broadening requirements of 
the ministerial office. 

Four new conferences were authorized — the East Penn- 



282 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

sylvania, the Illinois, the St. Joseph, and the Iowa, and 
provision was made for the division of the Indiana. 

The General Conference of 1841 had requested some 
of the older ministers then living to furnish to a com- 
mittee, consisting of C. Smith, J. Erb, and J. Eussel, "all 
the facts in their possession in relation to the rise, etc., of 
the United Brethren in Christ in America," the committee 
being charged with the duty of preparing from the mate- 
rials so furnished a history of the Church. The move- 
ment seems to have resulted in complete failure, and at 
the General Conference of 1845 the subject was brought up 
again. The conference then appointed Henry G. Spayth 
to undertake the work. With many advantages in his 
favor, Mr. Spayth found the task by no means an easy one. 
After some delay he set about the work, and, finally, in 
January, 1850, he completed his manuscript. Careful revi- 
sion followed, and the history was issued in 1851. Every 
student of this work will be impressed with its great value 
as an early and trustworthy source of materials for United 
Brethren history. With his education chiefly in the 
German language, Mr. Spayth's style is frequently found 
defective, and one could wish that some things had been 
given more fully. But the work proves the possession on 
his part not only of extensive knowledge of the subjects 
treated, but a discriminating grasp of the causes which led 
up to the founding of the Church and its subsequent 
development through the early part of the present century. 

III. THE TENTH GENERAL CONFERENCE 1849. 

The tenth General Conference convened at Germantown, 
in Montgomery County, Ohio, on May 14, 1849. Thirty- 
seven delegates, representing thirteen conferences, were in 
attendance. The presiding bishops were Russel, Gloss- 
brenner, and Hanb}^ 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1845 AND 1849 283 

Aside from the usual business pertaining to any Gen- 
eral Conference, including the election of general officers, 
only a single subject awakened much interest. This was 
the subject of secret societies, destined not many years 
afterward to acquire so large a place in the counsels of the 
Church. In 1833 the rule against Freemasonry had been 
adopted by the General Conference. Since then the subject 
had rested in quiet, except in 1841, when the prohibition 
clause against secret combinations was adopted as a part of 
the Constitution. Some minor orders, especially the Sons 
of Temperance, had now grown into prominence. A con- 
siderable number of the younger people of the Church had 
become connected with the latter order, generally in the 
belief that as Freemasonry was particularly named in the 
law incorporated in the Discipline, connection with the Sons 
of Temperance was not prohibited. An ordinance intended 
to cover the entire field of secret combinations was offered 
by Caleb W. Witt, of the White Eiver Conference, in the 
words : 

Freemasonry, in every sense of the word, shall be totally pro- 
hibited, and there shall be no connection with secret combinations 
( a secret combination is one whose initiatory ceremony or bond of 
union is a secret ) ; and any member found connected with such a 
society shall be affectionately admonished twice or thrice by the 
preacher in charge, and if such member does not desist in a reason- 
able time he shall be notified to appear before the tribunal to which 
he is amenable ; and if he still refuses to desist he shall be expelled 
from the Church. 

The motion to adopt this measure into the Discipline 
led to a long and almost wholly one-sided discussion. 
The members earnestly opposing the adoption were Jacob 
Bachtel and Jacob Markwood. Mr. Markwood, afterward 
bishop, later assumed radical grounds against secret orders, 
while Mr. Eesler, who here spoke and voted for adoption, 
was one of the earliest and most vigorous among the 



284 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

liberals. The ordinance was adopted by a vote of thirty- 
three to two, Markwood and Bachtel voting nay. Burtner 
and Rhinehart asked to be excused from voting. Thus 
the General Conference entered upon the more severely 
restrictive legislation which was subsequently followed by 
so strong a reaction. 

At this conference David Edwards was first called to 
the episcopal service, the work to which the remainder 
of his life was given. Bishops Glossbrenner and Erb 
were reelected, the latter after having been out of the 
oflQ.ce for four years. Bishop Hanby was again returned 
to the Religious Telescope; David Strickler was continued 
on the Frohliche Botschafter, and Nehemiah Altman, who 
had served during the previous term under appointment 
by the board of trustees, was elected publishing agent. 
Mr. Altman was a Jew by birth. His conversion to the 
Christian faith occurred at Lewisburg, Ohio. He entered 
the ministry soon after, and his abilities, united with energy 
and vigilance, soon came to be recognized. After his con- 
nection with the Publishing House ceased, he removed east, 
became a member of the Pennsylvania Conference, and did 
efl&cient service as a pastor, his principal work being done 
in the city of Baltimore. 

The conference remained in session twelve days. 

rV. PERSONAL NOTES. 

1. J. J. Glossbrenner, D.D, 

Among the bishops elected by the General Conference 
of 1845 was one whose name must ever stand as one of 
the most eminent in the first century of the Church, 
that of Jacob John Glossbrenner. Bishop Glossbrenner 
was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, on July 24, 1812, 
and was of German descent. His parents were mem- 




Jacob J. Glossbrenner. 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1845 AND 1849 285 

bers of the Lutheran Church, and the baptism and 
early training of their children were in that denomina- 
tion. The father died when Jacob was in his seventh 
year, and the mother was left with the care of four 
children, ranging in age from four to eleven. The sons, 
as soon as they were old enough, were put to learning 
trades, Jacob being apprenticed to a silversmith and watch- 
maker in Hagerstown when he was fourteen years of age. 
He was converted at the age of seventeen, under the 
preaching of William R. Rhinehart, then a young pre- 
siding elder in the Hagerstown, or original. Conference, 
and joined the United Brethren Church. He was ap- 
pointed soon after as leader for a class of young persons, 
mostly about his own age, and in this work he devoted 
much time to the study of the Scriptures, acquiring thus 
early that habit of close Scripture study which character- 
ized all his life. In the spring of 1830, at a camp-meeting 
in Washington County, when he was in his eighteenth 
year, he was surprised by being handed a license to exhort. 
The license was signed by Rev. George A. Guething, son 
of Rev. George A. Guething, the friend of Otterbein. Mr. 
Guething told him he might also preach as opportunity 
offered, or his older brethren desired him. A year later, 
the Virginia Conference having then been formed by 
division of the original conference, he attended the ses- 
sion of that body, in Shenandoah County, Virginia, and 
became one of its members. Thus in the nineteenth year 
of his age began the ministerial career of a young man 
who was destined to fill so illustrious a place in the labors 
and the growth of the Church during the half century 
which followed, a career which was not to be interrupted 
for a single year until the Master called him to his great 
reward. After three years of service as a circuit preacher 
he was chosen, then in his twenty-second year, to the office 



286 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

of presiding elder, which position he filled for four consecu- 
tive years. From the beginning he gave large promise of 
the eminence to which he attained as a preacher. He rose 
rapidly in success and acceptance with the people. In 1837 
he was elected to the General Conference, and again in 
1841 and 1845. He was thus a member of the two 
General Conferences by which the Constitution of the 
Church was formed. When chosen to the office of bishop 
he was in the thirty-third year of his age. Thus his more 
direct labors for his own conference, for which he cherished 
to the end of his life the tenderest regard, were suddenly 
brought to a close, while he entered upon that broader 
field which gave his service to the entire denomination. 
There are two aspects of Bishop Glossbrenner's life which 
have in a special sense left a permanent impression. One 
of these relates to his character as a presiding officer. 
Here he rose to a height but rarely attained. It would 
be difficult to find, either in ecclesiastical or civil life, a 
finer development of the qualities requisite to the head 
of an assembly than was possessed by Bishop Glossbrenner. 
In presiding over conferences, and especially the General 
Conferences, he was ever on the alert, so that nothing ever 
escaped his attention. He possessed a calm poise and 
power of control which never forsook him, and in the 
multiplication of motions, of every class, following in 
quick succession, and in the peculiar intricacies of busi- 
ness which sometimes arise, he was never confused. His 
rulings on parliamentary questions were clear, strong, and 
just, so that doubt as to their correctness rarely found 
expression. In the discussion of issues where members 
were sharply divided into parties, his own preferences were 
never manifested w^hile he sat in the chair, and all speakers 
were treated with the utmost impartiality. If he felt that 
he ought to express his sentiments on any particular issue, 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1845 AND 1849 287 

he did so after the vote was taken, giving the conference 
the benefit of his judgment and counsel. 

The second aspect in which Bishop Glossbrenner rose 
to an unusual eminence was in his character as a preacher. 
It was in the pulpit that his extraordinary powers found 
their freest play. His sermons, thoroughly prepared in 
all their details, though extemporaneously delivered, were 
models of compactness and strength. Never were ser- 
mons preached that abounded more richly in appropriate 
Scripture quotation, or conveyed more forcibly the great 
truths of the inspired Word. Dr. Drury, in his "Life of 
Bishop J. J. Glossbrenner, D.D.," says: "It is not too 
much to say that he was recognized by persons of all 
degrees of culture as one of the grandest preachers of the 
gospel that our land has produced. Once having preached 
a dedicatory sermon, a number of ministers of other 
churches being present, a very clerical and able Epis- 
copal minister became so excited over the grand scrip- 
tural sermon of Bishop Glossbrenner that he rushed up 
to the pastor of the United Brethren congregation, saying : 
'It is wonderful, wonderful, indeed! Never has there 
been such preaching since the days of St. Paul. That 
man ought to be set up somewhere as a model for all 
other preachers to copy!'"^ 

In his private and social life Bishop Glossbrenner 
possessed qualities that made him ever a welcome guest 
and companion in the homes of the people among whom 
so large a part of his time was necessarily spent. Warm, 
genial, kind, sometimes indulging in humor, but always 
discreet and eminently Christian, he was everywhere re- 
ceived with open doors and open hearts. He knew well 
also how to enter into the afflictions and sorrows of others. 
A lady of wide experience remarked of him that the 

^ Life of Glossbrenner, p. 286. 



288 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

sweetest, tenderest, most sympathetic prayer she ever heard 
uttered in the sick-room was by Bishop Glossbrenner, his 
great, warm heart pouring itself out in fervent suppHca- 
tion in behalf of the sick one. 

On the attitude of the Church toward secret organiza- 
tions he was properly classed with the liberals, always 
doubting the wisdom of extreme legislation, but supporting 
the law in his administration. 

During the period of the War of the Rebellion Bishop 
Glossbrenner was prevented from attending to the duties of 
his district. Residing within the lines of the Confederate 
armies, he was subjected to all the strict necessities laid upon 
non-combatants. He might have come north during the 
earlier stages, but he chose to remain — wisely, as the event 
proved — with the Church in Virginia, to do what he could 
to prevent the flock from becoming scattered. His prudent 
demeanor, both as to speech and acts, enabled him to do 
this, and thus to render to the Church during those stormy 
days an invaluable service. He was generally believed 
by the Confederate officers to be in sympathy with the 
Union cause, but as he gave no direct offense he was left 
undisturbed, and was even sometimes asked to preach to 
the Confederate soldiers. He had the fullest confidence 
and respect of General Stonewall Jackson and other leaders 
of the Confederate armies. Near the close of 1863 he 
applied to the Confederate authorities for a pass to come 
north, to visit the spring session of the Pennsylvania 
Conference, as also the northern half of the Virginia Con- 
ference. A pass w^as issued to him by Jefferson Davis, at 
the request of Colonel Baldwin, then in the Confederate 
Congress. The only restriction laid upon him w^as that 
he should reveal nothing as to the strength or location 
of the Confederate armies. The delays he met prevented 
him from reaching the Pennsylvania Conference in time for 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1845 AND 1849 289 

its session. He spent a while among friends at Chambers- 
burg and elsewhere, and then, receiving a pass from Major- 
General Couch, commander of the department of the Sus- 
quehanna, he returned to Virginia. The same restrictions 
were laid upon him by General Couch as on the Confederate 
side when he came north. Near the close of the War, in 
the spring of 1865, Bishop Glossbrenner came north again 
to attend the General Conference at Western, Iowa. Pre- 
vious suspicions that he had been disloyal to the Union 
were here repeated by some, and the bishop declined to pre- 
side over the conference until his loyalty could be vindi- 
cated. He was invited by the conference to make a personal 
statement at an hour named. His defense of his course, 
and his deep earnestness and manifest sincerity, taken in 
connection with all his past record for integrity and honor, 
completely swept the conference. A strong resolution of 
confidence and approval was then offered by a member, 
and was carried by the nearly unanimous vote of the 
conference, only two members being found to dissent. 

A long period of service was, in the providence of God, 
allotted to Bishop Glossbrenner. He lived to a ripe old 
age, and for ten quadrenniums, or fully forty years, he 
was in the active superintendency. They were years of 
toilsome labors, of extensive travels, of great efficiency, and 
abounding fruits. But old age came at last, and the time 
when the laborer must rest. The General Conference 
of 1885, at Fostoria, Ohio, on account of his failing 
strength, did not think it wise to impose on him further 
the duties of an active bishop, but, unwilling that after 
so long and honorable a career he should die out of the 
harness, it created for him the office of bishop emeritus. 
He was then elected to this office by an almost unanimous 
vote, only two members dissenting. 

During the quadrennium just past he had been bereft 

19 



290 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

of his faithful wife, who for more than fifty years had 
walked by his side, and now the time was approaching 
when he, too, should pass over the river. His growing 
infirmities increased upon him, and toward the close of 
the year 1886 it became apparent that the end was draw- 
ing near. His home during a good part of his life was 
at Churchville, Augusta County, Virginia, and here after 
the death of his wife he lived with his son-in-law. Here 
he was visited by many of the ministers and friends from 
near and far. Among the visits which he most appreciated 
was that of his long-time friend, Mr. John Dodds, of 
Dayton, Ohio, who made the trip to Virginia expressly 
to see him once more. To him he said, "If I could 
preach again, just once more, I would preach Jesus ; I 
would preach from his words to the disciples on the Sea 
of Galilee, * It is I ; be not afraid.' " Afterward he said, 
"My title is clear, not because I have preached the gospel, 
but alone through the love and mercy of our Lord Jesus 
Christ." Dr. Drury, in relating this, continues: "After 
Mr. Dodds had bidden him good-bye, leaving him lying 
in his bed, quiet, but deeply affected, he started to leave 
the house. The family also stepped outside. Looking 
back, they saw the bishop standing near the door, having 
gotten out of bed unassisted. With hand uplifted and 
streaming eyes he said : ' Brother Dodds, tell the brethren 
it is all right. My home is over there.' " 

The end came on January 7, 1887, when he calmly fell 
asleep. His age was seventy-four years, five months, and 
thirteen days. For fifty-six years he had been a minister, 
and forty-two years a bishop, and so remarkably was health 
sustained during this long period that not a single year 
was lost from active work. His remains were laid to rest 
on January 11 in the cemetery at Churchville. Bishop 
Weaver, agreeably to the request of Bishop Glossbrenner, 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1845 AND 1849 291 

preached the funeral sermon, paying a tender and eloquent 
tribute to the memory of his departed associate. 

It is more than an ordinary delight to linger over this 
grand and beautiful life, but the necessary limitations of 
this sketch forbid further extension. The reader is referred 
to the admirable Life of Bishop Glossbrenner, by Prof. 
A. W. Drury, D.D. 

^. John Russel. 

Another strong man elected by this conference to the 
office of bishop, a typical pioneer of the early days, was 
John Russel (in the original German, Roszel). Mr. Russel 
was born on March 18, 1799, at Pipe Creek, Maryland, 
one of the places near Baltimore which Bishop Otterbein 
often visited, and where his grandfather, an immigrant 
from Germany, was converted under Otterbein's preaching. 
His parents were devout in their religious life, and he was 
brought up under the most careful instruction. He was 
converted at an early age, and soon was found, at the 
request of his brethren, leading meetings, and delivering 
earnest spiritual exhortations, though without any thought 
of the future work which awaited him. When he was 
approaching young manhood, he was apprenticed to a 
blacksmith, learned the smith's trade, and was afterward 
provided by his father with a set of tools to carry on the 
business. It was not long, however, until he realized that 
the Lord had other work for him. With his father's 
consent the forge and hammer were abandoned, and he 
started for a conference which was held in Lancaster 
County, Pennsylvania. Here he was licensed to preach, 
Bishop Newcomer signing his credentials. All the East 
being still included in one conference district, the bishop 
took him with him to Virginia, where he started him on 
a circuit. He was then in his nineteenth year, with but 



292 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

limited education and experience, but with his heart aflame 
with the great theme which he brought to the people. His 
second year was in Pennsylvania, his circuit again being 
large, and appointments often difficult to reach. When 
his horse broke down, he was nothing daunted, but con- 
tinued his long journeys on foot. The third year, being 
then twenty years of age, he responded to the calls for 
ministers from what was then still thought of as the "far 
west," and came to Ohio. He joined the Miami Confer- 
ence, and was appointed to his first charge in the district 
which afterward became the Scioto Conference. Here he 
toiled industriously as a circuit preacher and presiding 
elder, after the true pioneer manner, until he was called 
east to become pastor of the Otterbein Church. He 
preached with equal facility in the German and English 
languages, frequently repeating a sermon in German if it 
was first preached in English, or in English if it was first 
in German. Often he read a text first in one language 
and then in the other, and next announced the divisions 
of his sermon in both, then following with one division in 
both languages, and so on alternately to the end. 

Mr. Russel was twice elected to the general superin- 
tendency of the Church, He was first a delegate to the 
General Conference of 1833, then of 1841, taking part in 
the framing of the Constitution of the Church. He was 
again a member in 1845, and by that conference was 
elected bishop. Retiring from the office after one term 
of four years, he was again chosen in 1857, this time to 
superintend especially the German work. He again served 
one term. 

In person Bishop Russel was tall, straight, strongly 
built, and of dark complexion. He wore his hair combed 
straight back over his high, arching brow, letting it fall 
well down toward his shoulders. His carriao^e, manner of 



THE GENERAL CONFEBENCES OF 1845 AND 1849 293 

address, and general bearing all indicated a man much 
above the average — a man, indeed, born to rule. He was 
firm in his convictions, did not easily let go a principle 
he once fully espoused, and yet was open to the light of 
advanced ideas. 

Mr. Russel was among the first to see the necessity for 
a publishing house for the Church, was a member of the 
first board of trustees appointed to originate it, and so 
sincerely did he give himself to its support that he sold 
his property to obtain money to get the enterprise started, 
loaning to it the proceeds of the sale on long time and 
at low interest. In 1840 he began to publish, in Balti- 
more, a German monthly periodical called Die Geschaftige 
Martha, which, in 1841, was merged into the official 
German paper established by the General Conference. 
To the cause of education he was for many years less 
friendly, fearing that colleges, if built by the Church, 
would become what were then frequently called "preacher 
factories." It is related that a former president of Leb- 
anon Valley College, with the view of enlisting the 
Germans of eastern Pennsylvania in the support of 
the college, invited Bishop Russel to visit the institution 
and preach a sermon. In due time the bishop came, 
and preached a sermon from the words, "Das Wissen 
blaset auf " ("Knowledge puffeth up"). The sermon was 
so effective in the opposite direction from what the pres- 
ident expected that in speaking of it he remarked that he 
would try in the future to manage the Germans without the 
bishop's help. On this subject, however, he materially 
relented toward the close of his life, so that he gave the 
sum of ten thousand dollars to the Pennsylvania and East 
Pennsylvania conferences for the purpose of educating theo- 
logically the ministerial candidates in the conferences. The 
gift, however, was hampered with such conditions as to make 



294 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

their fulfillment difficult. On another subject, like many 
others of the foremost men in the Church, he changed his 
attitude. In the General Conference of 1841 he assisted in 
putting into the Constitution the clause against connection 
with secret orders. He was present at the General Confer- 
ence of 1869, an interested listener to the discussion of two 
and a half days, after which he said to a friend that "he 
could live very happily and contentedly in the Church if 
the conference should adopt the proposition of the liberals." ^ 
Had he lived to the time of the recent conflicts, there can be 
little doubt that his position would have been found with 
Glossbrenner, Weaver, Dickson, and Castle, all of whom at 
one time supported the restrictive legislation of the Church. 

During the later years of his life his home was with 
his son-in-law, a Mr. Guething, near Keedysville, and only 
a short distance from the great battlefield of Antietam. 
His house was taken for a Confederate hospital, and filled 
with sick and wounded soldiers. Bishop Eussel remained, 
giving to the unfortunate men all the help he could. Age 
at last began to tell upon his strong frame, and the time 
came when he was to pass into the beyond to join the 
company of the immortals. His death occurred on Decem- 
ber 21, 1870, he being in the seventy-second year of his 
age. Bishop Dickson preached an appropriate sermon on 
the funeral occasion. 

Bishop Russel will long be remembered as a man of 
strong personality, of cheerful disposition, of ready wit, 
often indulging in practical jokes, as devoted to the 
Church, enduring in the fullest measure the privations 
and hardships of an early itinerant's life, and as one of 
the real builders In some of her interests, while honestly 
averse to others, and his name will remain as worthy of a 
high place on the roll of the eminent men of the past. 

1 Pioneer Address of Prof. H. Garst, D.D., at Miami Conference session, 1896. 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1845 AND 1849 295 

S. William Hanhy. 

The third bishop elected by the General Conference of 
1845 was Rev. William Hanby. Mr. Hanby was born 
in Washington County, Pennsylvania, on April 8, 1808. 
His childhood life was passed in poverty. When yet quite 
young he found a good home in the family of a farmer 
of the Society of Friends, where he remained until the 
age of seventeen, when he desired to learn the trade of a 
saddler, and was apprenticed to a man named Good. His 
master proved himself quite the reverse of what his name 
suggested, and young Hanby found his condition one of 
absolute slavery. At the age of twenty he came to Ohio, 
finding employment at the town of Somerset. At twenty- 
two he was converted, and soon after felt the divine impulse 
summoning him to the work of the ministry. In 1831, 
at the age of twenty-three, he was licensed to preach, and 
joined the Scioto Conference. His first charge, like many 
of that day, had nearly thirty appointments, and required 
four weeks to make the round, with an average of about 
one sermon a day. For his first year's service, with a 
wife to provide for, he received the sum of thirty-five 
dollars. But he had other and richer emoluments, for 
under his preaching there were converted and added to 
the Church that year about one hundred souls. In those 
days the prayer was often heard for ministers that they 
"might have souls for their hire." Very frequently it 
was almost their only compensation, but it was a reward 
which many having larger salaries might well covet. In 
1834, the second year of his itinerant life, he was elected 
presiding elder, and in 1837 he was chosen a member of 
the General Conference, which convened at Germantown, 
Ohio, where he was elected general agent and treasurer 
of the newly organized Publishing House at Circleville. 
In 1839 he was elected editor of the Religious Telescope, 



296 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

its first editor, Rev. William R. Rhinehart, having resigned. 
In 1845 he was elected bishop. He served in this office 
four years, when he was again elected editor of the 
Religious Telescope, with duties of publisher added. In 
1853 his more public connection with church service 
ended, but he served for many years on some of its 
boards, as a trustee of Otterbein University and also of 
the Publishing House. 

Of the large family of Mr. Hanby, two, a son and a 
daughter, became widely known ; the first, the Rev. Ben- 
jamin R. Hanby, to the musical world, through his popular 
songs, chiefly among them "Darling Nelly Gray," which 
joined a powerful influence to that of Mrs. Harriet Beecher 
Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," in forming that tide of anti- 
slavery sentiment which was finally to sweep the dark 
curse from our land ; ^ the other, Mrs. A. L. Billheimer, 
who with her husband accomplished valuable pioneer 
missionary work in Africa, and has since been prominently 
identified with the Woman's Missionary Board. 

Mr. Hanby died at his home in Westerville, Ohio, on 
May 17, 1880, being a little past seventy-two years of age. 
In his closing days he gave numerous expressions showing 
that his trust was unshaken in the near presence of death. 
The last words he was heard to utter were, "I am in the 
midst of glory." An incident of thrilling interest which 
occurred not many days before his death was recalled at 

1 It is of peculiar interest to note that an expurgated edition of this 
popular song was prepared by the publishers for circulation in the South, those 
features which might oflfend Southern feeling being carefully eliminated. The 
song had an immense sale, equaled, it was said, by only one other song ever 
published. It could be heard sung in almost every home in the North, and 
widely in its altered form throughout the South. Both the words and the 
music were Mr. Hanby's production. Mr. Hanby was a graduate of Otterbein 
University, and a preacher for a few years of brilliant promise, when failing 
health and death ended his career. This reference to his song is justified by 
the fact of its large influence, through its tender and pathetic power, in mold- 
ing the sentiment of the people of the North on the character of slavery as an 
institution in our national life. 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1845 AND 1849 297 

his funeral by Rev. J. S. Mills, now Bishop Mills, then 
pastor of the church at Westerville. Joseph Cook had 
been brought to the university to deliver a lecture, and 
hearing of Mr. Hanby's spiritual condition, and that earlier 
in his life he had frequently aided slaves fleeing for their 
freedom, desired to call upon him. The visit was made 
in company with Mr. Mills and President Thompson, of 
the university. Mr. Mills says of the interview : Mr. 
Cook "listened with marked interest to the words spoken 
by the suffering man. He spoke of his sympathy with 
Mr. Cook's work in the field of Christian science [using 
the term in its higher sense], and expressed his happiness 
at being permitted to see him ; at the close of which Mr. 
Cook said, 'I have come for your blessing,' and taking 
in his hands both the hands of the bishop, he reverently 
bowed his head while Mr. Hanby gave to him the earnest 
benediction, 'May the blessing of the Lord God be upon 
you and upon your work.' Mr. Cook responded, 'And may 
we meet in the city that hath foundations.' Mr. Hanby 
finished the quotation, 'Whose builder and maker is God.' 
To which the great scholar replied, 'Even so may it be.' 
Every one was thrilled as this Spirit-prompted ritual was 
uttered, and in perfect silence, which no one dared to break, 
the visitors passed solemnly out."^ 

A most important service was rendered to the Church 
by Mr. Hanby in the preparation of its history from about 
the year 1825, where its first historian, Mr. Spayth, left 
it off, down to the year 1850. It is in greatly condensed 
form, but has served a valuable end. Mr. Hanby was 
personally cognizant of much of what he wrote, and 
other materials were gathered from events of recent date. 
The book was published in 1851, in connection with Mr. 
Spayth's history. 

> Thompson's Our Bishops, p. 359. 



298 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

If,. David Edwards, D.D. 

Among the strongest figures that look down to us out 
of the past, is that of Bishop David Edwards. It is just a 
little over twenty years since he w^as called to his reward, 
but he is remembered with a distinctness as of yesterday. 
In height a little above medium, firmly built, with shoul- 
ders sloping upward toward a strongly outlined and well- 
covered head, and w^ith an earnest face and deeply-set, 
searching eyes, his picture is sharply photographed on 
the memory. In the pulpit he was a man of might, 
preaching sermons with a clear ring, penetrating often 
with keenest search the hidden things of the heart, making 
men fear and tremble as under the very eye of God, at 
other times portraying the rich things of the gospel in 
such glowing colors that the sermon seemed like a 
triumphal march. 

Bishop Edwards w^as of Welsh birth, his early home 
being amid the mountains of north Wales. He was 
born on May 5, 1816, of an ancestry w^hich preserved 
almost unchanged through centuries their strong race 
characteristics. From this ancestry and from the rug- 
ged hills among which his early childhood years were 
spent he doubtless derived in large part those sturdy 
qualities which so strongly marked his life. In 1821 his 
parents, with the family of children, came to America, 
remaining in Baltimore, Maryland, for two years, after 
which, in 1823, they removed to Delaware, Ohio. They 
were members of the Presbyterian Church. The father 
dying in 1825, David, three years later, when he was 
twelve years old, entered a woolen factory, to learn the 
trade of carding and cloth dressing. At seventeen he 
left home, with the benedictions of his pious mother, to 
find more remunerative employment in mills near Lan- 
caster, Ohio. Here, a year subsequently, he attended a 




David Edwards. 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1845 AND 1849 299 

protracted meeting held by the United Brethren, and was 
soon after converted. His religious life at once came to 
be marked with such sincerity and earnestness that those 
about him saw evidences of a divine call to the work of 
the ministry. He was not himself a stranger to this 
thought, for the same feeling had been with him quite 
early in his life. He tells us that at the age of seven he 
was impressed that he would be called to be a minister, 
and that from that time on he sought the Lord in secret 
and led a moral life. In the Sunday school and under 
preaching he often wept and poured out his heart in 
prayer. Thus from his childhood the oil of the divine 
consecration was upon him. 

On May 23, 1835, just about a year after his conversion, 
and when he was but a few days past nineteen years of 
age, he received quarterly-conference license to preach, 
and soon after entered regularly the itinerant work, at 
first as an associate with Eev. M. Ambrose, who was his 
pastor when his license was given. His first regular circuit 
had twenty-eight appointments, and required four weeks 
and three hundred and sixty miles of travel for one round. 
His membership throughout his life was in the Scioto 
Conference. 

Few men probably have entered upon a ministerial 
career with greater misgivings as to their personal fitness 
for the work. An exceedingly sensitive nature brought 
him frequently into the deepest discouragement over what 
he felt to be failures in the pulpit. And yet great success 
attended his ministry. On every charge he served, his 
earnest preaching w^rought conviction, and large numbers 
were added to the Church. At Circleville, where he be- 
came pastor in 1844, the phenomenal increase in mem- 
bership from one hundred and twenty-five to seven 
hundred and sixteen within a single year was reported. 



300 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

In 1845 he was elected to the office of presiding elder, and 
the General Conference which convened soon after, in May, 
1845, most unexpectedly to himself, elected him editor 
of the Religious Telescope. Writing was never an easy 
task or a pleasurable employment to Bishop Edwards. 
Throughout his life he wrote only when a sense of 
duty impelled him. When he accepted the duty laid 
upon him by his brethren, that of editing the Religious 
Telescope, he took up what he felt to be an irksome task. 
But he undertook the work w4th the same profound 
sense of direct responsibility to God with which he 
preached the gospel. In his choice of subjects and in his 
manner of treating them, this feeling was ever present. 
His range of leading subjects may be regarded as some- 
what circumscribed. The one subject to which he gave 
more thought and more discussion than to any other 
was that of personal holiness. Dr. L. Davis, his biog- 
rapher, says : 

"The great subject on which the mind and heart of 
Mr. Edwards were employed more than any other, — indeed 
more than all others, — . . . was holiness of heart and life. 
This was his central thought on all questions of church 
life and spirit. In this field, at least, he was at home. 
And no wonder, for it was with him a rich experience. He 
made the Telescope ring with this subject as it never did 
before nor has since. It inspired his best editorials, and 
governed very largely the selections made. The procla- 
mation of the subject in his first editorial became the key- 
note for correspondents throughout the entire term. In 
a word, everything was made to bend to this one all- 
absorbing theme. No mind was ever more indefatigably 
employed, no heart ever more fully poured out, in con- 
nection with the definition and advocacy of this doctrine 
than were the mind and heart of David Edwards." To 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1845 AND 1849 301 

this delineation Dr. Davis adds the discriminating remark, 
"It is doubtful if the particular doctrine of entire sancti- 
fication has ever been stated more clearly, more profoundly, 
and in a way less liable to objection, than as stated by 
him."i 

The sustained and earnest treatment of this subject in 
the editorials of the Religious Telescope by Bishop Edwards, 
during the four years of his editorship, had a very marked 
influence upon the thought of the Church. Other writers 
for the columns of the paper gave this subject special 
prominence, and many of the ministers throughout the 
denomination pressed it earnestly upon the attention of 
the people. As a result the spiritual life of the Church 
was greatly quickened, both in the pulpit and the pews, 
and it is safe to say that there was a depth of religious 
experience attained such as is not always witnessed in 
meetings held for the special promotion of holiness. 

The General Conference of 1849 reelected Mr. Edwards 
to the office of editor. But he had wearied with the duties 
of writing, and promptly declined, preferring to devote 
himself entirely to the ministry of the word. Bishop 
Hanby, who had preceded him as editor, and had served 
four years as bishop, was then elected in his stead, and 
Mr. Edwards was immediately elected to the office of 
bishop. In this office he served with unremitting toil 
until his labors ceased at the call of the Master. 

Bishop Edwards was a man of strong prejudices, believ- 
ing intensely in whatever he espoused, yet open also to 
conviction to opposite views. The secret-society question 
loomed into great prominence during the last twenty-five 
years of his life, and he was found on the radical side. 
He was not, however, so unreasoning and unrelenting as 
were some, and was disposed, when the evils of excessive 

1 Life of Bishop David Edwards, D.D., by Lewis Davis, D.D., pp. 78, 79. 



802 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

legislation became so apparent, to favor a more lenient 
policy. He died before the crises of 1885 and 1889 came. 
Had he lived to that time, there is every reason to believe 
that with Bishop Dickson, and many others of the best 
men among us, his loyalty to the Church he had so long 
and earnestly toiled to build up would have risen above 
devotion to any one principle of polity. 

Bishop Edwards spent nearly the whole of his life in 
what was then called the West. He presided over the 
Ohio District, and over the districts east and west of the 
Mississippi Eiver. His last appointment was to the East 
District, which fixed his residence during his closing years 
in Baltimore. He served twenty-seven years in the office 
of bishop, the last three on the East District, and forty-one 
years in the ministry. He retained his great power in 
the pulpit as long as his physical strength remained. He 
was smitten down in the ripe maturity of his great powers, 
his age being sixty years, one month, and one day. His 
death occurred in the bishop's parsonage at Baltimore, on 
June 6, 1876. His remains were brought to Dayton for 
interment, and after appropriate services were laid to rest 
in the beautiful Woodland Cemetery, 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1853-1861 
I. THE HOME, FRONTIER, AND FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 

The period extending from 1853 to 1861 was ushered 
in by two important events. The first of these was the 
organization of the Home, Frontier, and Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society. So far-reaching have been the results 
of this step that it may be regarded as marking an epoch 
in the progressive development of the Church. The pre- 
vious board, organized at an earlier session of the General 
Conference, had never adopted any aggressive measures in 
extending the missionary work, and the planting of the 
Church in new fields was chiefly left to the local societies 
in the annual conferences, or to such providential methods 
as might arise in connection with the removal of United 
Brethren ministers or families to newer portions of the 
country. 

The foremost among the annual conferences in perfect- 
ing its plans was the Sandusky, and foremost among the 
members of that conference in gaining a broad perception 
of the needs of the work and of the methods to be em- 
ployed was the Rev. J. C. Bright. Mr. Bright was a 
member of the General Conference which met at Milton- 
ville, in Butler County, Ohio, on May 9, 1853. He con- 
ceived the idea of bringing into more thorough organiza- 
tion the missionary work of the Church, by forming a 
strong central board, with officers actively employed in 
its service, and committing to this board the prosecution 



304 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

and general oversight of the work. His plan embraced 
the home and frontier fields, and the foreign also, as soon 
as a foreign mission should be projected. He proposed 
that all existing local or conference missionary organiza- 
tions should become tributary to the central board, and 
that in every conference where such organizations did 
not already exist auxiliary or branch societies should 
be formed. Thus the plan was intended to bring, as far 
as possible, the entire Church into active cooperation wdth 
the general missionary society. Mr. Bright laid before the 
conference a constitution which provided for the organi- 
zation and government of the proposed society, which, 
upon full consideration, with such amendments as met 
with favor, was adopted. The constitution thus adopted 
has remained substantially the same to the present time 
and the society organized under it has proved one of the 
most efiicient of the various departments of the work 
of the Church. For a larger view of the society and the 
work it has accomplished, the reader is referred to another 
part of this volume. For a copy of the constitution see 
Book of Discipline. 

II. THE REMOVAL OF THE PUBLISHING HOUSE. 

Another measure which contributed to making the 
General Conference of 1853 a memorable one related to 
the Publishing House of the Church. The reader will 
remember that at its organization it was located in the 
thrifty, but small, town of Circleville, Ohio. It was here 
situated in the midst of its friends — strong men, who cared 
for it nobly in the days of its infancy. In 1849 an effort 
had been made to remove it to Cincinnati, but was unsuc- 
cessful. But the time had come when more advantageous 
business facilities were needed for the better enlargement 
of its work, and the conference, after mature deliberation. 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1853-1861 305 

decided upon its removal to the city of Dayton. This 
order, and the removal which followed immediately after, 
occasioned for a time great disappointment to the friends 
of the House at Circle ville, but the wisdom of the confer- 
ence in ordering this change of location has been abun^ 
dantly demonstrated. 

III. LAY REPRESENTATION. 

Among other subjects which awakened earnest discussion 
during the successive conference sessions, was that of ad- 
mitting the laity to a part with the ministry in the 
counsels of the annual conferences. Their admission to 
seats in the General Conference was at that time less 
thought about, since there was a constitutional bar which 
precluded such a privilege. "All ecclesiastical power 
herein granted, to make or repeal any rule of discipline, 
is vested in a General Conference, which shall consist of 
elders, elected by the members in every conference district 
throughout the society." So said the Constitution of 1841, 
and the provision could not be changed except by the 
vote of the entire Church. But there was no obstacle to 
the admission of laymen to seats in the annual conferences, 
except the will of the General Conference. It is not to be 
forgotten, however, that while there were some, both in 
the ministry and in the laity, who foresaw the important 
advantages to be gained by the introduction of lay repre- 
sentation as a feature of our church polity, there was not 
at that time any wide-spread desire among the laymen for 
such representation. While some laymen asked for it, and 
sought in every proper way to awaken interest in the 
subject, the great body of the Church was indifferent in 
regard to it. A single memorial only came to the General 
Conference of 1853, and but few to the sessions of 1857 
and 1861. These memorials were properly referred, 

20 



306 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

and the subject was afterward courteously dealt with 
on the conference floor. Earnest advocates stood up for 
the principle, but the votes showed that the ministers 
composing the successive conferences were overwhelmingly 
opposed. The belief prevailed, and found expression, that 
all ecclesiastical power and administration were properly 
committed to the ministry. Few of those who then 
opposed could foresee how within their own time sentiment 
would so far undergo change that lay delegates would 
sit in our annual and General conferences. 

IV. TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 

The subject of total depravity, of which so little is now 
heard, was about this time a live question in the Church. 
Much was written upon it for the columns of the Religious 
Telescope, and in the General Conference its discussion 
excited the deepest interest. It was considered important 
that the applicants for license to preach should declare 
clearly their belief in the doctrine, and the subject was 
given a place among the questions which applicants were 
required to answer. A committee to whom the subject 
was referred reported the following as the form of question : 

Do you believe in the doctrine of natural, hereditary, and total 
depravity, as held by the Church? 

This was in the conference of 1853. A long and 
animated discussion followed, with no prospect, for a long 
time, of coming to an agreement. The solution was finally 
reached by an explanatory amendment, offered by Bishop 
Glossbrenner, as follows : 

1. By "depravity" is meant, not guilt, or liability to punish- 
ment, but the absence of holiness; which therefore unfits man for 
heaven. 

2. By "natural" is meant that man is born with this absence 
of holiness. 



THE GENERAL CONFEBENCES OF 1853-1861 307 

3. By "hereditary" is meant that this unholy state is inher- 
ited from Adam. 

4. By "total" is not meant that a man or child cannot be- 
come more unholy, or that he is irrecoverably unholy, nor that 
he is a mass of corruption, but that this absence of holiness naust 
be predicated of all the faculties and powers of the soul. 

This definition of the theological bearings of the subject 
proved generally satisfactory, and the amendment was 
adopted. The word "complete" was then substituted for 
the word "total," and the report as proposed was adopted. 
This, however, was not the end of the controversy, and 
the subject was destined to come up again. Discussion 
continued in the columns of the Religious Telescope, and 
when the General Conference of 1857 assembled in Cin- 
cinnati it was expected that the interest of the session 
would largely be concentrated upon this question. An 
editorial appeared in the Religious Telescope referring to 
the manner in which it was disposed of: 

"On Friday [the day before the report was presented] 
it was well known that the committee on revision would 
reach the much- agitated and very 2>erplexing depravity 
question. There were some indications that a tedious, 
severe, and long-protracted, if not acrimonious and un- 
brotherly, struggle would ensue. Contrary, however, to 
general expectation, the committee, which consists of one 
member from each annual conference, came to a perfect 
agreement, and had prepared a report which was this 
morning presented to the conference." 

The report of the committee provided that the question 
to applicants for license to preach, with the appended 
explanatory note, as adopted four years previously, be 
expunged from the Discipline, and that the following be 
inserted in its stead : 

Do you believe that man, abstract of the grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, is fallen from original righteousness, and is not only entirely 



308 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

destitute of holiness, but is inclined to evil, and only evil, and that 
continually; and that except a man be born again he cannot see the 
kingdom of God ? 

This report was adopted by the conference with but a 
single dissenting vote. So surprised and dehghted were 
the members at this unexpected and happy result that it 
was proposed to sing the doxology, '^ Praise God, from whom 
all blessings flow." All joined in the singing with unusual 
fervor. The form of question as thus adopted, with only 
a change of one or two words, has since remained unchal- 
lenged in the Discipline. 

V. SECRET SOCIETIES. 

This subject, after the legislation of the General Con- 
ference of 1849, began to be a source of unrest in the 
Church, and of debate in the General Conferences, leading 
often, as time advanced, to much bitterness and acrimonious 
utterance, until by the action of the Church, in the quad- 
rennium between 1885 and 1889, it was practically set at 
rest. The feeling which revolted against the law of 1849 
was at first limited to a small number of the members 
of the conferences. But the belief in the unwisdom of the 
extreme legislation continued to assert itself. In the con- 
ference of 1857 a paper was offered by J. B. Eesler as a 
substitute for the rule of 1849. That the reader may see 
how very little was asked in the direction of modification, 
the proposition is here reproduced : 

There shall be no connection with secret oathbound combina- 
tions. Any member found connected with such combination shall 
be affectionately admonished twice or thrice by the preacher in 
charge, and if such member does not desist in a reasonable time 
he shall be notified to appear before the tribunal to which he is 
amenable, and if he still refuse to desist he shall be expelled. 

The motion to adopt was debated at some length, Mr. 
Bachtel, of Virginia, supporting Mr. Eesler in the discus- 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1853-1861 309 

sion, Mr. Markwood, J. Erb, and others opposing. The 
proposition was rejected by a vote of forty-six nays to 
five yeas. 

The conference of 1861, at Westerville, Ohio, amended 
the rule by prescribing the manner of proceeding against 
persons offending. It added the words, ''shall be dealt 
with as in case of other immoralities." The amendment 
was sustained by sixty-eight yeas, and opposed by five 
nays, one of the members voting nay subsequently 
changing his vote to yea. The use of the word "other" 
in connection with "immoralities" definitely classed con- 
nection with secret organizations as an immorality, and 
so proved unsatisfactory to many in the laity, the language 
being thought indefensible and needlessly offensive. 

VI. THE SLAVERY QUESTION. 

We have seen that the General Conference as early as 
1821 embodied the voice of the Church in a distinct 
utterance against the institution of slavery. The rule 
adopted and placed in the Book of Discipline was strongly 
and clearly drawn, and could not be misunderstood. In 
time, however, there were found persons in membership 
in the Church who held slaves under peculiar circum- 
stances, such as made it difficult, if not quite impossible, 
to manumit them, on account of the form of wills under 
which they were inherited, or the extreme old age of the 
slaves, whom it seemed cruel to set adrift. Some of the 
ministers, especially in Virginia and Maryland, found 
themselves embarrassed by these conditions, and a re- 
quest was sent to the General Conference of 1857 for an 
explanation of the rule relating to slavery. The subject 
was carefully and considerately dealt with, but the con- 
ference stood firmly by the rule, and declared that the 
ministers must gently but firmly maintain the position 



310 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

of the Church, and instructed the bishops visiting the. 
Virginia Conference to make due inquiry if the law were 
enforced. This attitude of the conference, while working 
apparent temporary hardship, maintained the position of 
the Church and assisted in preserving its unity when 
some of our sister denominations were rent in twain. 

VII. ELECTIONS OF BISHOPS. 

The bishops chosen by the General Conference of 1853 
were J. J. Glossbrenner and David Edwards, reelected, and 
Lewis Davis. These were again elected in 1857, and John 
Russel was added to the number. In 1861 Bishops Gloss- 
brenner and Edwards were reelected, with Jacob Markwood 
and Daniel Shuck as associates, the last named being 
chosen especially for the work on the Pacific Coast. It 
was also decided to elect a bishop for the special super- 
intendence of the German work, and Henry Kumler, Jun., 
was chosen. 

The following resolution relating to Bible study in the 
institutions of learning was adopted in 1857 : 

Resolved^ That it is the advice of this General Conference to all 
who have control of the educational interests of the Church, to em- 
brace in their regular course of study the Holy Scriptures as one of 
the books in which there shall be regular recitations. 

VIII. PERSONAL NOTES. 

1, Lewis Davis, D.D. 

One of the strongest figures in the councils, as also in 
the work, of the Church, during a period of half a century, 
was Rev. Lewis Davis, D.D. He was born near Newcastle, 
then in Botetourt County, Virginia, on February 14, 1814. 
His ancestry on his father's side was Welsh, while his 
mother was of Scotch descent. Thus he derived legiti- 
mately that resoluteness of character which so strongly 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1853-1861 311 

marked his life. His father was poor in worldly goods, 
and at eighteen the son left home to learn a trade. He 
chose that of a blacksmith, but his employer was chiefly 
engaged in tool-making, and so he learned that art. This 
man early saw in him the prophecy of a broader life than 
that of an artisan, and encouraged him to read, and also 
to attend the academy at Newcastle. In this school he spent 
about a year and a half, thus laying the foundations upon 
which he afterward erected the edifice of a solid education. 
Mr. Davis's religious impressions began also during this 
time to take distinct form. He afterward spent some time 
in West Virginia as a teacher, and subsequently came 
across into Ohio. His conversion occurred under the 
ministry of Rev. William Davis, M.D., and after this his 
friends began to intimate to him that the Lord intended 
him for the ministry. He received his first license to 
preach when he was twenty -four years old. In the spring 
of the next year, 1839, he joined the Scioto Conference, 
and for eight years performed faithfully the work of an 
itinerant preacher, part of the time as presiding elder. He 
felt deeply the disadvantages of his limited education, but 
resolved to make the most of every possible opportunity 
for self-improvement. He carried his books with him, 
and when entering a house, after exchanging cheerful 
greetings, and spending a little time in conversation, he 
was accustomed to withdraw to some other part of the 
room and begin his studies. This did not always meet 
the approbation of the friends who entertained him, and 
various instances are related of the manner in which he 
was obliged to defend himself in order to be allowed to 
pursue his studies. On one occasion a kind-hearted but 
talkative brother said to him : " Brother Davis, I don't want 
that work done. While you are here, I want you to talk 
all the time. You are our preacher, and I pay you for 



312 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

talking." "Brother," he replied, "I can't talk all the 
time, and if you won't allow me to study some while in 
your house I must go elsewhere, where I can study." ^ His 
perseverance in study soon gained for him the highest 
respect, and he was allowed to have his own way. His 
diligent attendance to study, thus sustained through a 
series of years, so broadened and strengthened his mind 
that by and by, though not having graduated from any 
college, he was deemed, and at that time justly, too, the 
most fit man in the denomination to assume the presidency 
of its first college, to which position he was elected three 
years after its founding. And this same earnest study, 
with the fruits following, seldom intermitted during his 
lifetime, led to his selection as the head of the theological 
seminary when it was founded twenty-one years later. 

Mr. Davis, though not a member of the General Con- 
ference of 1845, united his influence with that of others in 
securing action by that body recommending the founding 
of an institution of learning for the Church. When 
the Scioto Conference began to move in this direction, and 
the Blendon Young Men's Seminary, at Westerville, Ohio, 
was purchased, he was among the foremost in urging for- 
ward the enterprise. He was appointed one of the trustees, 
and became soliciting agent for the project, himself making 
the first subscription ever made in the United Brethren 
Church for an educational institution. He found this hard 
work, encountering in some instances strong opposition 
from official sources. At the session of the Sandusky 
Conference, whose cooperation he sought. Bishop Russel, 
who was presiding, and who was for many years intensely 
averse to education undertaken by the Church, resolved 
that Mr. Davis should not be heard in the open conference, 
and repeatedly ruled him out of order when he sought 

^Thompson's Our Bishops, p. 398. 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1853-1861 313 

to speak. When the vote was taken, the majority favored 
cooperation. At the Muskingum Conference, soon after, 
the same experience was repeated, the bishop peremptorily 
commanding him to "be still." Here the bishop carried 
the conference with him. The next year the action was 
reversed, and the conference came into line. 

In 1850 Mr. Davis was elected president of Otterbein 
University. In 1853, though not a member of the Gen- 
eral Conference, he was elected bishop. He performed 
the duties of this office, retaining the presidency of the 
college. In 1857 he was reelected bishop. He then 
resigned the office of president, but two years later, on 
the resignation of President Alexander Owen, he was 
again called to be the head of the college. He then con- 
tinued to fill this position with great distinction until he 
was called, in 1871, to the chair of theology and the rela- 
tion of senior professor in Union Biblical Seminary, at 
Dayton. This position he held until 1885, when advanc- 
ing years began to tell seriously upon him, and he was 
released from active duties. He was then made professor 
emeritus^ in which relation he remained to the end of his 
life. 

He was first elected to the General Conference in 1869, 
though he was twice before a member by virtue of being 
a bishop. After 1869 he was reelected to each conference 
until 1885. As a member of the General Conference, 
while watchful over the various interests of the Church, 
there was one subject to which he gave supreme attention — 
the attitude of the Church toward secret organizations. On 
this he was intensely radical, giving it his most studious 
and unremitting thought. Other issues in the proceedings 
of the conferences were often watched by him and sup- 
ported or opposed according to their supposed or possible 
bearing, near or remote, on this one central issue. To 



314 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

such an extent did he yield himself to this that it became 
with him through many years a kind of morbid infatua- 
tion, and one could not but feel a regret that his great 
abilities for varied service should have been so far con- 
centrated upon this one thing, as if there were no other 
evils for the Church to combat, no other great ends to 
achieve. His great abilities on the conference floor were 
always recognized. As a debater he was usually logical, 
always forcible ; in speech and manner, ever dignified, 
never condescending. With his great strength he easily 
carried a large following of weaker men with him. 

As a preacher Dr. Davis was entitled to eminent rank. 
He thought clearly and thoroughly, acquired a complete 
grasp of his subject, and spoke with deliberate self- 
possession, often with much warmth, frequently mellow- 
ing into great tenderness and beauty. He may be said 
to have been often eloquent, but his eloquence did not 
depend on the multiplication of words, or elaborated 
phrases, but was rather the result of a clear apprehension 
of truth, uttered in chaste and simple diction. In social 
life he was genial and kind, full of pleasant sunshine, 
but preserving always a dignity which is seldom attained, 
and never counterfeited. His home was the center of a 
large and generous hospitality. 

As a writer Dr. Davis wielded an able pen. In his 
earlier years the columns of the Religious Telescope were 
frequently enriched by his contributions, usually on educa- 
tional subjects. In his later years he wrote the "Life of 
Bishop David Edwards," a volume possessing permanent 
merit. On the slavery question, though born and brought 
up in Virginia, he was, like Bishop Markwood and others 
of our ministers in that State, one of the stanchest of 
abolitionists. 

To many of his truest friends it was a source of pro- 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1853-1861 315 

found sorrow that his extreme attitude on the antisecrecy 
legislation carried him at last away from the moorings 
to which he had so long been anchored. The great body 
of the Church, wearied with the fanaticism and the inces- 
sant clamor of ultra-radicalism, began in time to yield 
to a strong reaction. This tendency, from being repre- 
sented in the General Conferences preceding that of 1869 
by a vote of less than five, gradually gained strength until 
in 1885 it was represented by more than a two-thirds 
majority, and radicalism began to look toward secession. 
Dr. Davis was not present in the General Conference of 
1889, when secession became a fact, but his sympathies 
had been with the leaders, and he gave them subsequent 
support. He was now old, and the time of the end was 
drawing near. Meanwhile, he never asked for a letter of 
dismissal from the Summit Street Church, where he held 
his local membership, and where he and Mrs. Davis each 
were recognized with highest honor until they were called 
by the Master. In conversation with his pastor. Dr. G. M. 
Mathews, he sometimes playfully alluded to the fact that 
his name remained with the Summit Street congregation, 
but never asked for a change. He found it no easy task 
to separate himself from the Church to which he had 
given so many years of service, and which had so long 
honored him with its confidence and regard. After his 
death the quarterly conference of the charge passed reso- 
lutions, embodying the fact of his connection with the 
congregation and their body, and expressing sentiments 
appropriate to the occasion. 

When the end came, on March 23, 1890, it found him 
serene in spirit, and fully prepared for the mysterious tran- 
sition. The departure was a great spiritual triumph, and 
the recollection of the words spoken and the scenes wit- 
nessed will not easily fade from the memories of those who 



316 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

visited the chamber from which his spirit took its flight. 
His remains, after appropriate services in the Summit Street 
Church, were laid to rest in the beautiful Woodland Cem- 
etery at Dayton, not far from the spot where the body of 
Bishop Edwards sleeps. Five years later the body of Mrs. 
Davis, whose attachment and devotion to the Church never 
faltered, was laid beside that of her husband. 

Dr. Davis will long be remembered for his great service 
in the educational work of the Church, a field in which 
he was its first and most distinguished pioneer, and to 
which he gave a greater number of years than have been 
given by any other in the same calling. His age at the 
time of his death was seventy-six years, one month, and 
nine days. Nineteen years he served as president .of Otter- 
bein University, fourteen years as senior professor in Union 
Biblical Seminary, and fifty-one years in the Christian 
ministry. 

2. Jacob Markwood. 

One of the most remarkable men whom the Church 
has yet produced was Bishop Jacob Markwood, of the 
Virginia Conference. He was born amid the romantic 
scenery of what is now West Virginia, near Charleston, 
in Jefferson County, on December 26, 1815. His father, 
John Markwood, was not a professor of religion. His 
mother was a woman of devout spirit, a member of the 
Presbyterian Church, and possessed the qualities of a 
finely cultured Christian lady. From her Jacob, one of 
the latest born of a large family, derived chiefly those 
qualities which so strongly marked his character. He 
was the subject of deep religious conviction in his tenth 
year, and became, as he grew older, a diligent reader of 
the Bible. He dated his conversion to his seventeenth 
year, but did not form a connection with any church until 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1853-1861 317 

he was in his twenty-first year, when he joined the United 
Brethren Church. His father possessed no property, was 
by trade a mason, and made several removals during his 
life. Blindness seems to have been a misfortune of the 
family, both the parents and some of the children losing 
their vision as life advanced. The father became blind 
some six years before his death, and the mother fourteen 
years. Bishop Markwood inherited the tendency, and was 
nearly blind for about a year before his death. Had he 
lived to old age, it is probable that he would have walked 
many years in darkness. 

As were others of the family, Jacob was early left to 
make his own living. At thirteen he found employment 
in a woolen and carding mill, remaining for three years. 
At sixteen he was employed by two older brothers, in the 
same business, on Green Spring River, in Frederick County, 
Virginia. Here he learned all the arts, as then under- 
stood, connected with the woolen factory, and became an 
expert weaver. Here he was accustomed to keep the Bible 
on the loom before him, so that he could glance at it in 
favorable moments, and gather portions of its wealth into 
his mind. 

In the year 1837 he received a license to exhort, and 
within the same year also a license to preach, his creden- 
tials being signed by William R. Rhinehart, then a pre- 
siding elder in the Virginia Conference. The following 
year, in 1838, he became a member of the conference, and 
at once entered into the itinerant work, and upon that 
brilliant career which marked him as one of the foremost 
preachers of his time. After five years of service as a 
circuit and stationed preacher, he was elected presiding 
elder, serving in this office with the greatest acceptability. 
In this relation most of his time was passed, greatly to 
the edification of the Church in Virginia, with but little 



318 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

interruption, until the General Conference, in 1861, called 
him to become a shepherd over a wider field. He served 
as a bishop for eight years, acquiring the greatest popu- 
larity with ministers and people, and would doubtless have 
been continued in the office had not severe and settled 
affliction disabled him for further service in a field whose 
labors so severely test the strongest constitutions. 

Bishop Markwood was of rather slight figure, not over 
five feet and seven or eight inches in height, and of erect 
and elegant carriage. He was quite dark in complexion, 
with strongly outlined face and head. His black hair fell 
in heavy masses about his head. His disposition is perhaps 
difficult to describe. He was genial, polite, courteous in 
the best sense, full of the gentlest kindness, generous with- 
out limit. But this generous nature was capable of being 
profoundly stirred in rebuking iniquity. When dealing 
with the slavery question, with the liquor traffic, or other 
evils that laid claim to respectability, he was capable of 
pouring out a very deluge of fire. The stately Wendell 
Phillips, that master of the oratory of invective, was 
scarcely able to give utterance to such a scathing storm 
of wrath as Bishop Markwood sometimes did when deal- 
ing with these monster evils. 

In his preaching the bishop was a master. His 
diction was copious, his utterance rapid and warm, and 
his power to reach every passion and impulse of the heart 
rarely surpassed. He gave careful attention to the 
preparation of his sermons, but did not build them up 
artificially according to the usual laws for sermon-making. 
He sought to fill his mind and heart thoroughly with his 
subject, and then trusted much to the inspiration of the 
occasion for the forms of utterance — a method very safe 
for him, but not to be generally commended for imitation. 

Unhappily for this gifted man, he paid slight regard 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1853-1861 319 

to the laws of health. He traveled with equal willingness 
by day or night, in the saddle in his earlier years, or on 
the train in the later, thus depriving himself of the rest 
which his impulsive nature so greatly needed for proper 
recuperation. It was not an unusual thing for him to 
be all night in the saddle in order to reach distant ap- 
pointments when he served as presiding elder in Virginia, 
and in his long trips on his Western districts as bishop 
he was equally reckless of the claims of his physical 
nature. The nervous exhaustion which gradually brought 
on the final crisis, was largely due to excesses in preaching 
and travel. 

In the War of the Rebellion he was compelled early to 
seek a home in the North, his fiery arraignment of the 
movements leading to secession inviting against him the 
unfavorable attention of the Confederate authorities. The 
sum of a thousand dollars was offered for his apprehension, 
but he had found a safe asylum with friends in the North. 
The bishop's home was without children, and his wife, 
whom many remember as a lady of beautiful Christian 
character and accomplishments, came north with him. 
She afterward accompanied him frequently in his travels on 
his districts, being everywhere received as a welcome guest. 

His eight years of service as a bishop closed in May, 
1869, and after much painful affliction his earthly career 
closed on January 22, 1873. He died at the home of his 
father-in-law, at Luray, in Page County, Virginia, aged 
fifty -seven years and twenty-seven days. Eev. G. W. 
Statton, D.D., preached an appropriate funeral discourse. 
His remains sleep in the cemetery at Luray, and those 
of his wife, whose death occurred December 3, 1886, rest 
by his side. On a marble shaft marking the place where 
he is buried are inscribed his last words: "My w^ork is 
done ; the Lord has no more work for me to do." 



320 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

3. Daniel Shuck. 

The men whose names have up to this time come into 
prominent mention in these pages have all passed on into 
the heavenly world. Others who are yet living must now 
be introduced, and these must be spoken of with more 
reserve, and generally more briefly. 

Among those whom the General Conference has honored 
with its confidence is Ex-Bishop Daniel Shuck, of the 
Indiana Annual Conference, who was elected to this high 
office at the session in AYesterville, Ohio, in 1861. At 
that time the work on the Pacific Coast was rising into 
importance, and the conference decided to form it into a 
missionary district, with a resident bishop to superintend 
it. Mr. Shuck was then in the prime of young and vigor- 
ous life. He was full of religious zeal and of the mis- 
sionary fervor which the recent organization of the Home, 
Frontier, and Foreign Missionary Society had kindled in 
the hearts of many, and it was a most fit selection when 
the General Conference laid its hands upon him for that 
work. He shrank at first from the responsibility involved, 
but gave his consent to go. Returning to New Albany, 
Indiana, to complete his year of service there as pastor, he 
meanwhile made preparation for the journey. When the 
time came for his departure, the emergencies of the Civil 
War, which had then begun in earnest, placed an embargo 
upon his going, and it was not until March, 1864, that he 
reached Sacramento City. There being then no trans- 
continental railroad, the journey was made by New York, 
Aspinwall, and Panama. 

His work as a Coast bishop in those days was beset 
with many difficulties, on account of the long trips over 
mountainous countries. Especially difficult was the over- 
land journey to Oregon and return. Once, on the return, 
he was set upon by robbers. A display of rcA^olvers and 



THE GENERAL CONFEEENCES OF 1853-1861 321 

Ugly-looking knives, pockets emptied, the bishop tied to 
a tree, while Mrs. Shuck was being searched and their 
trunk pilfered of clothing and money, were some of the 
incidents of the experience. Their persons were not 
harmed, and they went on their way rejoicing that life 
was spared, but they felt that as they had before been 
"in perils of waters," so now they had also been "in 
perils of robbers." 

The General Conference of 1865 reelected Bishop Shuck, 
though he was not present at the session, having been on 
his district only a little over a year, and the distance being 
so great. The conference of 1869, at Lebanon, Pennsyl- 
vania, dissolved the Coast District, deciding that the 
conferences there should be visited by the bishops of the 
general work alternately. Bfshop Shuck was in attendance 
at this conference, but some time afterward returned to 
the Coast, having resolved to spend the remainder of his 
life among the people there. He continued to serve the 
Church with great faithfulness in various relations, as 
presiding elder, circuit and stationed preacher, evangelist, 
or missionary. Several years ago the severities of hard 
service began to tell upon his vigorous constitution, and 
his voice entirely failed him. That trouble is now chiefly 
removed, and he rejoices in being able sometimes, though 
now seventy years old, to preach as often as three times 
on a Sabbath. His wife, who so long endured with him 
the hardships of pioneer life, is still by his side, and they 
have just passed the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage. 

Ex-Bishop Shuck joined the Indiana Conference at the 
age of about seventeen, in 1844, and has been in the 
ministry about fifty-three years. He became interested 
in the cause of education, assisted in locating Union 
Biblical Seminary, and has been one of the chief sup- 
porters of San Joaquin Valley College. 

21 



322 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

On the subject of legislation relating to secret societies, 
he stood for the Discipline as from time to time am.ended. 
But when the final crisis came, he remained loyal to the 
Church, deeming the preser^^ation of the Church an object 
more to be desired than stubborn adhesion to a principle 
which the great body of its people had ceased to support. 

He resides now in Sacramento City, Cahfomia, and 
rejoices in any labor that he is able to perform for the 
]\Iaster whom he has so long ser^^ed, and in the prosperity 
of the Church to which the toil of his life has been given. 




V 







Jacob Markwood. 



John Dickson. 





William R. Rhinehaet. 



John C, BmaHT, 





,^0 '^K 



% 




Solomon Vonnieda. 



iJjui^-.l ^.Xiiii^i 





David L. Rike. 



Jacob Hoke. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1865-1881 
I. A PERIOD OF PROGRESS. 

The time from 1865 to 1885 was in a marked degree 
distinguished as a period of development. Events having 
a most important bearing on the progress of the Church 
transpired between these dates. A non-progressive spirit, 
too, asserted itself, for a time with increasing intensity, 
tending to restrict the life of the Church within narrower 
limits, to be met, however, by that strong reaction which 
made possible the culmination of 1885, and made that 
one of the truly historic years of the Church. The period 
was one of steady growth in the membership and the 
various institutions of the Church. The field of operations 
was rapidly enlarged in the newer districts of the West. 
The Home, Frontier, and Foreign Missionary Society 
proved the value of its service by increasing activities, 
aiding in the organization and support of a number of new 
conferences, so that the thirty-two conferences of 1865 
had become forty-eight in 1885. The membership of the 
Church also was nearly doubled within this period, 
advancing from 89,811 to 173,265. 

Several important branches of church work also were 
organized in such manner as to come definitely under the 
care of the General Conference. The first of these was 
the General Sunday-School Board, originally called Sunday- 
School Association, formed by the conference of 1865. 
Next followed Union Biblical Seminary, the preliminary 

323 



324 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

steps for its founding being taken by the conference of 
1869. After this followed the Woman's Missionary Asso- 
ciation, organized independently, but receiving the official 
recognition of the General Conference. This association 
was formed in 1875, and it was an incident of very special 
interest when, at the General Conference of 1877, at West- 
field, Illinois, Mrs. D. L. Rike, as a representative of the 
woman's board, presented in an excellent address the 
greetings of the association. The conference of 1869 
organized a general Board of Education, which should 
have oversight of all the educational work of the Church. 
This board has accomplished a valuable service in this im- 
portant field. This conference also organized the Church- 
Erection Society, laying the foundations of a department 
of work which has already proved of much service in 
its particular field, and will accomplish far greater work 
in the future. In the publishing department great advance 
was made. In 1865 the Publishing House, though show- 
ing assets amounting to over sixty thousand dollars, was 
embarrassed with liabilities reaching so near to an equal 
amount that a sale of the House could not have satisfied 
the claims against it. In 1885 the net assets above all 
liabilities were considerably more than two hundred 
thousand dollars. This material progress, however, is to 
be regarded only as an index suggesting the higher gains 
to the Church accomplished through the numerous publi- 
cations issued from its presses. Each of these special 
departments of work will be found spoken of farther on 
in this volume. 

II. PRO RATA REPRESENTATION. 

Several questions of church polity were much agitated 
through this period. Among the most important of these 
were those relating to the ratio of representation in the 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1865-1881 325 

General Conference, and to lay representation or lay dele- 
gation in the General and annual conferences. The earliest 
basis of representation in the General Conference had no 
reference to annual-conference districts. By the consent, 
or request, of the old, or original, conference in the East, 
the Miami Annual Conference arranged the basis for rep- 
resentation for the first General Conference, held in 1815. 
The Church was divided into ten districts, each district 
to be entitled to two delegates. The districts of the pre- 
siding elders seem to have furnished, in part, at least, the 
basis for the division into the ten districts. This arrange- 
ment seems to have placed it within the power of any 
annual conference to secure for itself a larger representation 
in the General Conference by increasing the number of its 
presiding-elders' districts. At any rate, in the General 
Conference of 1833 some of the Western conferences appear 
to have gained material advantage over those in the East. 
But this advantage, wath their powder to outvote their 
Eastern brethren, they appear to have surrendered grace- 
fully, for in the conference succeeding, that of 1837, rep- 
resentation was upon an even plane, each of the eight 
conferences then existing having two delegates on the 
floor. The ratio of representation was one of the subjects 
considered by this body, and it was evidently the judgment 
of the majority that the arrangement was unfair to the 
larger conferences. The proof of this is in the fact that, 
in framing the Constitution which they approved and 
placed before the Church, they adopted the principle of 
jpro rata representation. The basis proposed was equi- 
table, and was very clearly expressed in the following, 
in Section 3 of Article I. : 

The number of delegates from each conference district shall not 
exceed one for every five hundred members. But should it so hap- 
pen that a conference would be formed in a territory not having five 



326 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

hundred raembers within its district, that conference shall never- 
theless have one delegate to represent its members in General 
Conference. 

The General Conference of 1841 was evidently not of 
the same mind with that of 1837. In framing the Con- 
stitution which was then adopted, and by which the 
Church was governed until 1889, the conference left out 
the pro rata feature, but placed a clause in the body of 
the Discipline providing for a representation of three 
delegates from each annual conference. It was early felt 
that an arrangement which gave to five hundred or a 
less number of members in a mission conference as much 
power in the law-making body of the Church as was 
possessed by five thousand or ten thousand in an older 
conference was gravely unjust, and earnest efibrts were 
from time to time made to secure a more equitable repre- 
sentation. The first movement in this direction was in 
the General Conference of 1857, upon a motion intro- 
duced by the younger Bishop Kumler favoring pro rata, 
representation. The motion was voted down, as were all 
subsequent efforts during the successive General Confer- 
ences until 1881. The General Conference of that year 
adopted a compromise measure, in which the pro rata 
principle was partially recognized. The measure gave to 
the smallest annual conference no less than two, and to 
the largest no more than four, delegates. 

III. LAY REPRESENTATION. 

Originally the General and annual conferences of the 
Church were composed of the ministerial class alone. This 
composition of the conferences grew naturally out of the 
type of its early life. At the "great meetings" the min- 
isters held their councils and decided what places were 
to be visited and who among them were to make the 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1865-1881 327 

visits or tours determined upon. Later, when these coun- 
cils became organized conference meetings, they still con- 
sisted of the ministers only, and the General Conference, 
when it was organized, took on the same type. This was 
in a period when little was thought of except building 
up the immediate spiritual interests of the people. There 
was no missionary society, no colleges or seminaries, no 
publishing house, and not very much building of church- 
houses. There was but little that required immediate 
counsel with the laity. Most of the ministers received 
no salaries, and others so little that even the office of 
steward was for a number of years unknown. On the 
material side of building up the Church, in which it 
would be supposed that the laity were especially inter- 
ested, there was so little done that the general councils 
might very well be composed of ministers only. With 
the springing up of the various departments of church 
work, these conditions changed, and there began to be 
a goodly number, both in the ministry and in the laity, 
who believed that the laity should bear a part in the 
business of both the General and the annual confer- 
ences. As related to the financial side of the question, 
intelligent laymen frequently made the just complaint 
that the laity were expected to contribute the money 
for carrying forward the enterprises of the Church and 
were denied a voice in determining how the money 
should be spent. 

There was no serious barrier in the Constitution or Rules 
of Discipline of the Church to forbid laymen becoming 
members of the annual conferences. All that was needed 
was for the General Conference to enact the necessary 
legislation amending the provisions under which annual 
conferences were formed. In regard to the General Con- 
ference the case was different. Here the Constitution of 



328 THE UNITED BBETHREN IN CUBIST 

1841/ as has been already seen, interposed an obstacle 
which no General Conference in its own power could 
overcome. 

The provision which vested all ecclesiastical power 
in the ministry alone must of necessity be changed 
before the laity could share this prerogative with the 
clergy ; and the provision which was intended to make 
alteration or amendment difficult by requiring the approval 
of a two-thirds vote of the entire Church, did this very 
effectually. Under these conditions the friends of lay 
delegation had a problem of unusual difficulty to meet. 
All efforts in ■ the direction of securing lay delegation 
must contemplate, first, the favor of a majority in the 
General Conference, composed of ministers only, many of 
whom believed that special divine prerogatives to rule 
as well as to shepherd the Church were committed to 
the ministry ; and, secondly, they must secure the approv- 
ing vote of the entire Church on an amendment to the 
Constitution. 

The first well-directed effort to secure the necessary 
legislation for bringing such an amendment before the 
Church for its approval was made in the General Con- 
ference of 1869. A committee on lay representation was 
appointed as one of the standing committees of the confer- 
ence. An excellent report, providing for an amendment 
to the Constitution and for the requisite legislation to take 
the vote of the people, was presented. It was ably de- 
fended before the conference, but voted down by the 
decisive majority of fifty-five against thirty-two. But it 
would be unjust to this conference to regard it as non- 
progressive on this account, since it was this body which 
authorized the founding of a theological seminary and 
created the Church-Erection Society. 

^ See p. 305. 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1865-1881 329 

In the quadrennium following the conference of 1869 
a decided advance in the sentiment of the Church on this 
subject was made. In the conference of 1873, held at 
Dayton, Ohio, the subject was again introduced. A report 
similar to that defeated in 1869, but fuller and more 
explicit in its provisions, was presented and adopted. A 
question then arising in regard to the construction to be 
placed upon Article IV. of the Constitution, a resolution was 
adopted referring the decision to the Board of Bishops. 
The question related to the meaning of the phrase "unless 
by request of two-thirds of the whole society." The resolu- 
tion was as follow^s : 

Resolved, That the explicit rendering of Article IV. of the Con- 
stitution be submitted to the Board of Bishops, and that they be 
instructed to publish the same in the Religious Telescope. 

The bishops took the matter under advisement at a 
regular meeting subsequent to the adjournment of the 
conference. Being four in number, their vote upon the 
main question involved was a tie. In consequence, 
the amendments were not submitted to the people, the 
will of the General Conference was defeated, and lay 
representation was again deferred. 

These repeated failures, though disappointing, did not 
dishearten the friends of lay representation. In the con- 
ference of 1877 the subject was again introduced, and a 
paper was adopted empowering the annual conferences, 
when so desiring, to adopt lay representation in their 
sessions, each charge in any conference to be entitled to 
one delegate. The lay delegates so admitted to member- 
ship were to have all the privileges of the ministers, ex- 
cept the power to vote on the reception or expulsion of 
preachers, the passing of licentiates in the course of read- 
ing, and the election of presiding elders. Thus an im- 
portant advance step was gained. But lay representation 



330 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

in the General Conference was to be still further delayed. 
In the conference of 1881 a report providing for jpro rata 
representation was adopted, but the same report also 
recommended that the question of lay representation in 
the General Conference be for the present deferred. This 
part of the report was also adopted, and lay representation 
in that body was not secured until, by the action of the 
General Conference of 1885, and the vote of the entire 
Church following, the Constitution was amended so as to 
open the way for its introduction. 

IV. THE SECRET-SOCIETY QUESTION. 

The secret-society question received a large amount of 
attention during the period from 1865 to 1885. During a 
large part of this time it became, indeed, the dominating 
question of the Church. The columns of the Religious 
Telescope teemed with articles on this subject ; in the 
successive sessions of the General Conference entire days, 
sometimes several days, were given to its discussion, often 
in heated debate ; and most, perhaps all, of the annual 
conferences at each yearly session passed some form of 
resolutions, either supporting the legislation of the General 
Conference, or advising more moderate measures. The 
tendency was steadily toward a more intense radicalism, 
until the very excesses to which writing, speaking, legisla- 
tion, and administration w^ere carried began to bring 
about a strong reaction. 

There is no doubt that the fathers of the Church held 
a sentiment adverse to secret societies, or rather to the 
Masonic order, the one society best known to them. Bishop 
Otterbein, like Mr. Wesley, the founder of the Methodist 
Church, and many other leaders of Christian thought of 
that day, looked with disfavor upon this order. Bishop 
Boehm was born and brought up in a church which, like 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1865-1881 331 

the Society of Friends, discountenanced all oaths, includ- 
ing those administered in the courts, and was therefore 
all the more opposed to oaths not required by civil law. 
The followers of these eminent leaders naturally adopted 
their views, and opposition to secret societies finally found 
expression in the Book of Discipline, and in 1841 in the 
Constitution then adopted. The first legislation of the 
Church on the subject was in 1829, at a time when the 
sentiment of the country, for special reasons, was widely 
and very strongly aroused against the Masonic order. The 
legislation by the General Conference of that year was 
specifically against Masonry. This was sixteen years after 
the death of Bishop Otterbein, and while his personal 
sentiment was adverse to Masonry he never framed it into 
a rule for the government of the Church. 

In the year 1868 a national convention of men 
opposed to secret societies was held in the city of 
Pittsburg. Several persons prominently connected with 
the United Brethren Church were present as members, 
and participated in its proceedings. Among the steps 
taken by the convention was that of recommending the 
publication of a weekly periodical which should be espe- 
cially devoted to opposition to secret societies. This paper 
found a considerable circulation among the people of 
the United Brethren Church, and aided much in kin- 
dling the spirit of intense radicalism which subsequently 
found so strong a development in the Church. On the 
approach of the General Conference of 1869, it advised 
the United Brethren to look carefully to its ofiicials 
connected with the Publishing House. The Religious 
Telescope at that time was conducted on a plane of mod- 
eration, but in firm disapproval of secret societies, and 
in support of the position held by the Church. But its 
tone was not sufiiciently radical to meet the extreme views 



332 THE VNITED BRETHREN IX CHRIST 

of some on the question. In the conference of 1869 and 
in several succeeding conferences the subject was made 
an issue in the election of some of the general officers — 
in some cases successful, in others not. The columns of 
the Religious Telescope, it was thought, should be espe- 
cially guarded, and for eight years, from 1869 to 1877, 
the paper was placed under the most vigilant radical 
supervision. The A'ery intensity of its radicalism began 
in time to react upon itself, and many earnest supporters 
of the church law on secrecy desired a change in the 
control of the paper, and a new editor, of more moderate 
views, was chosen, to give a truer expression of the sen- 
timent of the Church. 

The rule in the Discipline against connection with secret 
societies was the bone of contention, the radical portion 
of the General Conferences seeking from time to time to 
increase its severity, while the liberals sought to soften 
or modify its provisions. The yeas and nays on the 
changes proposed in the successive conferences are the 
best index of the gradually changing sentiment as it 
advanced from the position of ultraism to a more liberal 
attitude. In the conference at AVesterville, Ohio, in 1861, 
the vote on the final adoption of the rule as then amended 
stood sixty-eight yeas to five nays, one of these being after- 
ward changed to yea. In the minutes for 1865 the yeas 
and nays are not recorded. In the conference at Lebanon, 
Pennsylvania, in 1869, the proportion was seventy -two for 
adoption to twenty-five against, the ratio being in the 
first instance about seventeen to one, and in the second 
not quite three to one. The main vote in the conference 
of 1873, at Dayton, Ohio, after the Religious Telescope had 
been for four years under radical control, was eighty-two 
yeas to twenty-two nays, a gain to the radical side, and 
a loss to the liberal. In the conference of 1877 the vote 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1865-1881 333 

stood seventy to thirty-one, a loss to the radical side and 
a gain to the liberal. In 1881 a test vote stood sixty-eight 
radical to fifty-seven liberal, and in 1885 liberal sentiment 
had so far advanced as to make possible the steps taken 
for the amendment of the Constitution. A greatly modi- 
fied rule on secret societies, proposed by the liberals, was 
adopted by a vote of seventy-six to thirty-eight, six not 
voting, and the measure providing for the appointment 
of a Commission for the amendment of the Constitution 
and revision of the Confession of Faith was carried by 
the decisive majority of seventy-eight in favor to forty- 
two against. The number of delegates, with the bishops 
included, was one hundred and twenty, the bishops in 
each instance voting. 

V. PERSONAL NOTES. 

1. Jonathan Weaver , D.D. 

The General Conference never made a wiser selection for 
the office of bishop than it did at its session of 1865, when 
it laid upon Jonathan Weaver this high responsibility. 
For nearly thirty -two years he has gone in and out before 
the Church, performing for it service in all its various 
fields, except in the foreign missionary districts, with a 
degree of success and acceptability not surpassed in its 
history. 

Bishop Weaver was born in Carroll County, Ohio, on 
March 23, 1824, and was the youngest of a family of 
twelve — six sons and six daughters. His educational 
advantages were limited, being such as were found in the 
common schools of that day, with the addition of attend- 
ance at a Presbyterian academy, or high school, for a short 
period. It has always been a source of regret to him that 
he did not have the advantage of a thorough training in 



334 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

the schools. But at that time the Church did not have 
any denominational schools, and the ministers of his 
conference mostly were not in favor of college-trained 
preachers. So he entered the field with such preparation 
as he had, and sought by reading and study to make up 
in part what he lacked at the beginning. 

His religious convictions go back to an early date. His 
conversion occurred at a camp-meeting in the summer 
of 1841, when he was seventeen years of age. At nineteen 
he was chosen a class-leader, and at twenty was given 
license to exhort. With this license he was pressed to 
assist on a circuit for a time. In 1847, at the age of 
twenty-three, he joined the Muskingum Conference, and 
so entered upon the distinguished career which awaited 
him. His first charge, in the region bordering upon Lake 
Erie, included seventeen appointments. He increased this 
number to twenty-three within the year, and had about 
eighty accessions to the Church. He succeeded well as 
a revivalist, his accessions on each of two other charges 
numbering a hundred and upward within a year. In 
1848 he was ordained by Bishop Glossbrenner. In 1851, 
after four years' work on circuits, he was chosen presiding 
elder, and in 1857 he was a delegate to the General 
Conference at Cincinnati. 

During these years he was gradually rising in popularity 
as a preacher. This fact, added to his urbane and winning 
manner, led the trustees of Otterbein University to seek 
his services as a soliciting agent for that institution. His 
cordial and hearty bearing, with his eloquence in the 
pulpit, won for him a welcome wherever he went, and 
he served in this relation for eight years. The General 
Conference of 1861, at Westerville, Ohio, elected him 
bishop for the Pacific Coast. He declined this respon- 
sibility, preferring to remain in the service of the college. 




Jonathan Weaver. 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1865-1881 335 

The year 1865 brought the crisis which fixed his 
destiny for the rest of his Hfe. The General Conference 
of that year was held in the chapel of Western College, 
then located at Western, Iowa. An editor of the Religious 
Telescope was to be chosen, and his friends rallied strongly 
to his support for the position. He had written much 
for its columns, always in a pleasing and attractive style. 
This, added to his wide popularity as a preacher, and the 
earnest advocacy of his supporters, seemed to make his 
election a foregone conclusion ; but when the ballots were 
counted, he was not elected. The General Conference 
then did a much wiser thing, when, almost immediately 
after, it elected him to the office of bishop. What he 
became as a bishop all the Church knows. 

As a presiding officer over the General or annual con- 
ferences he has been eminently successful. His knowledge 
of parliamentary law, his grasp upon conference business 
through all its entanglements, his clear statement of 
motions or of decisions of questions of order, his perfect 
poise when the floor was somewhat stormy, and his occa- 
sional playfulness withal, have marked him as one of 
the ablest masters of assemblies. 

On some questions of church polity which occasioned 
agitation, he long ago proved himself to be progressive 
by giving support, cautious for a time, to the movements 
which looked toward change. On the attitude of the 
Church toward secret societies, he became early a semi- 
liberal, and as he saw in his wide experience the results 
of extreme legislation he gradually came to favor strongly 
the adoption of more moderate measures, and finally was 
ready to stand in the front rank of the movement which 
gave to the Church its revised Constitution. In the prog- 
ress of this change his counsels, as in all other things, were 
moderate. He has never been ready to support sudden or 



336 THE UNITED BBETHREN IN CHRIST 

violent measures, but has rather pursued the course which 
seemed to promise the greater safety. 

But it is in his character as a preacher that Bishop 
Weaver has won in greatest degree the affections of the 
Church. Here his style is easy, clear, luminous, strong, 
often gentle and tender, frequently rising to majesty. It 
is not given to many men to be his equals in the pulpit. 
The simplicity of his style, while justly challenging the 
approbation of the learned and wise, wins also the favor 
of childhood. Of this the following is an interesting illus- 
tration : Some years ago, in the city of Dayton, the pulpit 
of one of the leading Presbyterian churches was vacant for 
a time, and the bishop was engaged to fill it when his 
duties permitted. An officer in the church related that one 
Sunday morning at the breakfast table his little daughter, 
a child of eight, had asked him who was going to preach 
that day. On being told that Bishop Weaver would preach, 
she exclaimed, gleefully: "Oh, then I am going to stay 
for church. I like to hear him preach. I can under- 
stand everything he says." The sermon was somewhat 
lengthy that day, and when the gentleman had returned 
home he asked his daughter whether she did not get 
tired with the bishop's long sermon. She replied, "Oh, 
no, papa, the sermon was not at all long." The bishop 
on that day was in one of his best moods, and the length 
of the sermon was precisely one hour and thirteen min- 
utes. It would be difficult, perhaps, to give higher praise 
to a sermon than such a tribute by a little child. 

Some years ago the bishop's strength began to be broken 
through long-continued and excessive labors, and the Gen- 
eral Conference of 1893 decided to release him from 
active duties except such as he might feel himself able 
to perform. He was accordingly elected bishop emeritus, 
in which relation he now continues. With his strength 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1865-1881 337 

thus weakened he has been aging perhaps somewhat pre- 
maturely, and presents now quite a venerable appearance. 
His tall form, equaling in height that of Abraham Lincoln, 
whom in some other respects he has been thought to 
resemble, begins to be slightly bent, and his heavy white 
locks and beard betoken rather more years than the 
calendar measures. But he is serene and happy in spirit, 
happy especially over the prosperity of the Church for 
whose welfare he has toiled so long. It is a source of great 
comfort to him that the Church is now about safely 
through with the troublesome conflict of the recent years, 
in which he himself was called to take so large a part 
for her defense, and that the promise of a bright future 
now everywhere illumines the horizon. 

Bishop Weaver has been a free contributor to the 
literature of the Church. For forty years he has written 
frequently for its various periodicals, and a number of 
books and pamphlets have appeared from his pen. Among 
these are "Discourses on the Resurrection," "Divine Prov- 
idence," "Ministerial Salary," "Universal Restoration," and 
"A Practical Comment on the Confession of Faith." He 
is also the editor of a theological work entitled "Christian 
Doctrine," a symposium contributed to by thirty-seven 
writers selected by himself. 

Bishop Weaver's home for a number of years past has 
been in the city of Dayton, where he enjoys the high 
regard of the people of all denominations. He still makes 
long journeys to preside over such annual conferences as 
are allotted to him in the sessions of the episcopal board, 
and preaches frequently in Dayton and elsewhere as his 
strength permits. He abides in strong hope of standing 
in due time in the presence of the Master whom he has 
served through so many years. 

22 



338 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

2. John Dickson, D.D. 

Through a period of twenty-four years the name of 
John Dickson, D.D., appeared as one of the bishops of the 
Church, his service commencing in May, 1869, and closing 
in 1893. Bishop Dickson was born near Chambersburg, 
Pennsylvania, on June 15, 1820. His father was of Scotch- 
Irish, and his mother of English, ancestry. The family 
home was on a farm, and until he was about seventeen 
years of age his life was spent in the usual farm employ- 
ments, with a short term at the common school during 
the winter season. The advantages afforded by the usual 
common school of that day were very limited, and he 
acquired later, in diligent private study, the close and 
accurate mental training which gave character to his 
preaching through life. He entered quite early upon the 
profession of a teacher, and taught the usual winter term, 
with an added term in the spring. 

His conversion occurred in November, 1843, under the 
ministry of Rev. J. C. Smith, then a young man beginning 
his work, but afterward rising into prominence as a min- 
ister. He was soon after this called upon to open meetings, 
and not long afterward the license to exhort, more customary 
in those days than now, was given him, and then a license 
to preach. His conversion took place in the "Old Red 
School-house," some eight miles southwest from Cham- 
bersburg, a place sometimes called the "soul factory," from 
the frequency of the revivals which took place there. 
He took his first charge as a preacher in March, 1846, at 
a conference in Lancaster County, the presiding officer 
being Bishop Glossbrenner, then in the first year of his 
service as bishop. In 1847 he joined the conference, and 
three years later, in 1850, he was ordained as an elder by 
Bishop Erb at a session of the conference at York. 

During the years following, up to May, 1869, he per- 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1865-1881 339 

formed diligently the duties of an itinerant minister, being 
in charge of circuits or stations, or in the office of presiding 
elder. Meanwhile, he gave much attention to study and 
writing, becoming a frequent contributor to the columns of 
the Religious Telescope. During part of the quadrennium 
from 1865 to 1869 he was one of several editorial contrib- 
utors to the paper. So well recognized were the attainments 
he had made that his name was at one time proposed for 
president of Mount Pleasant College, before the consolida- 
tion of that institution with Otterbein University. He 
modestly declined this honor, and urged the election of 
Alexander Owen. His counsel was wisely followed. Pre- 
vious to the first appointment of John Lawrence as editor 
of the Religious Telescope, in 1850, his name was consid- 
ered by the trustees of the Publishing House for that 
position, but he declined to be a candidate. 

The General Conference of 1869, held at Lebanon, Penn- 
sylvania, not far from his own home, chose him for the 
responsible office of bishop, and reelections followed at each 
conference until 1893. He performed the duties of this 
trust with unflagging diligence, giving attention faithfully 
to every minute detail. As a presiding officer, whether 
over the General Conference or the annual conferences, 
he was clear, accurate, and strong, so that the progress 
of business was always safe in his hands. He had a com- 
plete grasp of parliamentary law, and kept full control 
over the intricacies, especially of General Conference busi- 
ness, and a doubt as to the correctness of his rulings was 
rarely suggested. 

As a preacher Bishop Dickson has always been recog- 
nized as clear, methodical, and strong, possessing less of 
the emotional than some, never attempting rhetorical 
adornment or flights of eloquence, but always instructive 
and edifying. During his service as a pastor frequent 



340 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

revivals, some of them of considerable extent, occurred 
under his ministrations. 

On some of the questions which agitated the Church 
during many years, he was conservative, and for a long 
time was numbered with the radical party. His early 
training had taught him to regard the attitude of the 
Church as wise and right, and he was slow to come to 
any material change of sentiments. He doubted the 
wisdom of the appointing of the Church Commission by 
the General Conference of 1885, and, while he was by 
virtue of his office as bishop a member of it, he chose 
not to take part in its deliberations, fearing that the entire 
movement would result in harm to the Church. He was 
thoroughly conscientious in this, and frankly stated his 
position in a letter to the Commission. He was in no 
sympathy with those who, when they were no longer able 
to control, began to prepare the way for the disruption 
of the Church, as all his subsequent course demonstrated. 
When the final crisis came, he was found with Weaver 
and Castle and Kephart, and with all who adhered loyally 
to the Church ; and during the years which followed, his 
pen was frequently employed in clearing up doubts which 
had been raised in the minds of many in the Church 
through representations designed to place it in a false 
position. His activity in this respect proved of great 
service in holding to the Church many whom it was 
sought to mislead by alleging that the Church had nul- 
lified its own Constitution, cast aside its Confession of 
Faith, and adopted other instruments in their stead. 

In years Bishop Dickson has now advanced well toward 
the sunset, being in the seventy-seventh year of his age, 
but he has as yet suffered little abatement of strength. 
His contributions for the church periodicals are clear and 
vigorous as ever, and he preaches almost constantly with 



THE GENERAL CONFEBENCES OF 1865-1881 341 

undiminished acceptability. He resides in his old home 
in Chambersburg in quiet contentment, the wife of his 
youth still sitting at his side, and abides firm in the faith 
of the gospel of Christ, which he has so long proclaimed. 

3. Nicholas Castle, D.D. 

Twenty years ago this coming May, Bishop Castle was 
elected to a seat in the episcopal board. He was born in 
Elkhart County, Indiana, on October 4, 1837, and is now in 
the sixtieth year of his age. His early life was passed in 
poverty as to worldly circumstances. His father died when 
he was about two years old, and his mother, gentle, deli- 
cate, toiling to rear her orphan family, long an invalid, was 
released from suffering when he was but thirteen. He in- 
herited a frail constitution, and was a delicate child, and 
nobody needed a boy who was not rugged enough to 
perform substantial labor on the farm. He drifted awhile, 
until at fifteen he found a home, in which he remained 
until he attained his majority, and, indeed, until he entered 
upon the work of the ministry. Three months of attend- 
ance at school each year was one of the conditions of his 
stay with this farmer, and the terms of the contract were 
carefully kept. But so defective was the system of teaching 
in those days in the newer parts of the country that the 
advantages secured were comparatively meager. 

His conversion was attended with marked power, so as 
to leave the question of a true religious experience per- 
manently settled in his mind. His call to the ministry 
followed soon after, expressing itself to his own mind and 
to the minds of others in the conviction that God intended 
him for the sacred office. With the greatest timidity and 
fear he began, at the urgency of his friends, to speak in 
public, and when the annual session of the St. Joseph 
Conference was approaching he arranged to attend it. 



342 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

The opening day of the session, September 23, 1858, 
found him present as an applicant for license to 
preach. The conference was held at Warsaw, Indiana, 
and Bishop L. Davis presided. To his surprise, — for it 
was more than he had allowed himself to expect, — the 
conference accepted him, and he was assigned to the 
Warsaw Circuit, a field with twenty-four appointments, 
all of which must be met every four weeks. He was 
ordained by Bishop Markwood on October 14, 1861. For 
a little over eighteen years, until May, 1877, he served 
in various relations the St. Joseph Conference, a portion 
of the time as presiding elder. 

The General Conference of May, 1877, held in Westfield, 
Illinois, brought him new and most unexpected duties in 
the Church. The death of Bishop David Edwards had 
left an important vacancy to be filled, and the General 
Conference had decided to strengthen the episcopal service, 
so that there were two bishops to be elected. Mr. Castle 
was one of those who were chosen. The announcement 
of the choice came upon him with overwhelming powder, 
and his sense of unfitness for the high responsibilities 
involved led him to so far shrink from accepting the 
ofiice that he well-nigh determined upon a resignation. 
If any accusation of seeking for office could ever be laid 
justly against any one, such could never be said of Bishop 
Castle. He finally, after much fervent prayer, decided to 
submit to what seemed to be an expression of the Divine 
will. "I do not know what it means," he said, "but God 
shall be his own interpreter." The committee to station 
the bishops assigned him to the Pacific Coast. This field 
was an exceedingly difficult one to serve, owing to the 
long distances that must be traveled, many of the journeys 
lying across almost pathless mountains, and being beset with 
a variety of perils. For eight years Bishop Castle served 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1865-1881 343 

on the Coast District, gaining an experience, though at 
hard cost, which has proved valuable to him ever since. 
It was during this period that he was called to part with 
his first wife, a lady of the noblest type of beautiful 
Christian womanhood, who had faithfully shared his 
toils since the second year of his work in the ministry. 
Since 1885 his residence has been at Elkhart, Indiana, 
near the place of his birth, and his service has been at 
large throughout the Church upon the plan of episcopal 
visitation adopted by the General Conference of that year. 
As a presiding officer over the General and annual 
conferences Bishop Castle takes high rank with his breth- 
ren of the board of superintendents. As a preacher he 
impresses his hearers with the depth of his sincerity and 
the thoroughness of his own experience. His imagination 
is warm and vivid, so that descriptive passages in his 
sermons often take on a poetic cast, and his utterance 
frequently rises into the truest eloquence. His extreme 
sensitiveness and timidity, which he even now finds it 
often difficult to hold in abeyance, usually disappear as 
his sermon advances, and he becomes a master of the 
best forms of speech. In the pulpit and everywhere else 
he makes the impression of one devoutly sincere as a 
Christian, and as holding daily communion with God. 
His health is often delicate, yet God has enabled him to 
render a very large amount of service to the Church. 

i. Milton Wright, D.D. 

Ex-Bishop Milton Wright was born on November 17, 
1828, in Rush County, Indiana. He dates his conversion 
in 1843, and he became a member of the White River Con- 
ference in 1853. He spent a busy life in the itinerant 
work prior to his being called into official service. A part 
of this time he was employed as a missionary in Oregon. 



344 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

The rest was chiefly given to the White River Conference, 
in the various relations of circuit preacher, stationed pastor, 
or presiding elder. He was in all these duties a faithful and 
conscientious worker, avoiding no hardships that might be 
in store for the itinerant in the home fields, or for the mis- 
sionary on the frontier. A short time w^as spent in teaching. 

He began early to give attention to the anti-secret-society 
movement, attending the convention of the national asso- 
ciation opposed to secret orders at Pittsburg, in 1868, and 
other conventions of the same organization in subsequent 
years. His strong convictions on this subject, and the 
active interest taken in opposing secret societies, led to 
his election as editor of the Religious Telescope by the 
General Conference of 1869, the first conference in which 
this question was made an issue in an election. He was 
reelected in 1873, with Rev. W. 0. Tobey, a man of very 
pronounced convictions on the same subject, as joint 
editor. During the eight years of his incumbency the 
columns of the Religious Telescope were intensely radical. 

In 1877 he was elected to the ofiice of bishop. The 
radicals w^ere at that time so greatly in the majority that 
they could easily elect any one whom they chose. There 
w^as, nevertheless, a considerable number of delegates who, 
while firmly opposed to secret orders, and supporting the 
prohibitive measures adopted from time to time by the 
General Conference, desired a somewhat milder adminis- 
tration in the Religious Telescope. The choice of editor 
did not lie between the radicals and liberals, but between 
the radical candidates. Rev. J. W. Hott, now Bishop 
Hott, who at that time was regarded as a man of mod- 
erate views, was chosen. Bishop Wright served four years 
on the West Mississippi District, and at the General Con- 
ference of 1881 was not reelected. In 1885 he was again 
elected, for the Pacific Coast District. 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1865-1881 345 

The conference of 1885 having taken the initiatory 
measures for amending the Constitution of the Church 
and for the revision of the Confession of Faith, Bishop 
Wright opposed the action, with all the steps necessarily 
following, exerting against it all the influence of his official 
position, and preparing, with others, the way for the 
secession which followed at the conference of 1889. At 
this conference his connection with the Church ceased. 
All his previous career marks him as a laborious, earnest, 
and plodding worker, faithful to the best interests of the 
Church as he conceived them to be. He was drawn into 
a false position, and finally to a most unfortunate step, 
by an excessive devotion to a single principle and a type 
of church policy which the great body of the Church 
had come to regard as untenable. 

6. EzeUel B. Kephart, D.D., LL.D. 

The men who have been called to the office of bishop 
in the United Brethren Church have, with few exceptions, 
been born in humble circumstances, and their earlier lives 
have been marked by hard struggle against adverse 
conditions. Among the recent bishops, and those now 
living, a number have risen to high distinction as 
preachers and parliamentarians. Their work in the pulpit 
and as presidents of assemblies has awakened, and has 
fully merited, the highest admiration. But all their suc- 
cess has been achieved through unflagging industry, joined 
to a strong faith in God, who directs the destinies of men. 
To these conditions Bishop Kephart is not an exception. 

The bishop was born in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, 
on November 6, 1834. His father was of Swiss origin, 
with a mixture of English, while his mother was partly 
of Dutch descent. The parents were members of the 
United Brethren Church, and the father a minister. The 



346 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

home was a very humble one, situated ou the western 
slope of the Alleghany Mountains. The spirit of true 
piety ruled in the home, the parents joining together in 
the effort to bring up their children in the fear of God. 
The place was frequently visited by other ministers, and 
protracted meetings were sometimes held there. In this 
home were brought up three sons who have gained dis- 
tinction in circles wider than the denomination which they 
serve, one of them. Dr. I. L. Kephart, being editor of the 
Religious Telescope, and another. Dr. C. J. Kephart, being 
general secretary for the State Sunday-school work of 
Pennsylvania. All of the three have served as college 
presidents. 

Bishop Kephart's early educational opportunities were 
limited. But when, after his conversion, which occurred 
at the age of seventeen, his impulses began to draw him 
toward the Christian ministry, he resolved that he would 
seek an education. After spending a short time in a 
seminary, he entered Mount Pleasant College, at the age 
of twenty-three. When that institution was merged into 
Otterbein University, he, with many of the rest of the 
students, followed its destinies to that college. Here he 
graduated first in the scientific and afterward in the 
classical course, after unavoidable interruptions growing 
out of financial circumstances. In 1868 he was elected 
president of Western College. He accepted the position, 
and remained as head of the college for a period of 
thirteen years, until the General Conference called for 
his service in a higher realm. As the head of the college 
he at once set about elevating its character, both as to 
the work done by the classes and in discipline. In this 
he met with success, giving to the institution a higher 
tone generally than it had ever possessed before. He w^as 
strongly impressed with the unfortunate location of the 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCES OF 1865-1881 347 

college, and was instrumental, with others, in effecting its 
removal to its present excellent place. His success in 
connection with the college attracted the favorable attention 
of the General Conference held at Lisbon, Iowa, in 1881, 
and he was called to the higher service of the episcopal 
office. Since then he has been three times reelected, so 
that he is now in his sixteenth year in that office. 

As a college president and teacher Bishop Kephart 
exhibited many of the foremost qualities. His own edu- 
cational course was achieved under many difficulties, and 
he could enter into ready sympathy with students who 
were struggling against adverse circumstances. In teach- 
ing he was generous in his attitude toward students, 
leading them on to investigation for themselves by 
throwing a genial glow over their work. As a ruler 
over the college, in the administration of necessary disci- 
pline, he was kind and considerate, but inflexible. 

As a bishop he has achieved an enviable success. He 
presides over the conferences. General and annual, with 
dignified ease, keeping the progress of business well in 
hand, without liability to confusion. He possesses a clear 
grasp of parliamentary law, makes his decisions firmly, 
and business proceeds easily under his direction. The 
kind geniality of his nature finds frequent expression, and 
a conference is little liable, even when exciting or irritating 
questions are under consideration, to drift away from a 
spirit of pleasant humor. As a member of the episcopal 
board he is a wise and safe counselor, bearing his full part 
in deciding the delicate and difficult questions that some- 
times come before the board. The first draft of the 
bishops' quadrennial address before the General Conference 
of 1885, in which questions affecting most vitally the 
future of the Church were considered, it is understood was 
prepared by him. Some features of this address, from the 



348 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

nature of the subjects to which they relate, must acquire 
a permanent historic character. 

Bishop Kephart, as a capable, broad-minded, large- 
hearted, genial Christian gentleman, with little of private 
interests to serve, but keeping the best interests of the 
Church steadily in view, is greatly esteemed in the 
responsible station to which he has been called. 



Sixth Period— i885-i897 

CHAPTER XIX 
THE NINETEENTH GENERAL CONFERENCE — 1885 

I. THE KEVISION MOVEMENT. 

The period from 1885 to 1889 marks an era of the 
highest importance in the progressive history of the United 
Brethren Church. The general tendency of the Church 
had long been in the direction of a broader life. There 
was a growing feeling that excellent as were the things 
of the past, they were in some respects cast in a narrower 
mold than the exigencies of advancing time required, just 
as the old divinely appointed Jewish polity, and the church 
which was established under it, needed in time to enter 
into broader forms and a freer life. From the beginning 
the law-making power of the Church was exercised by 
the ministers only, and when a General Conference was 
proposed the plans by which it was to be constituted 
provided for the election of ministers only. When the 
conference assembled, provision was made for the election 
of ministers only to future General Conferences. And 
when, at a later time, a General Conference took it upon 
itself to make a constitution, the same feature was fixed 
in the fundamental law of the Church. For a number 
of years scarcely a question was raised as to the propriety 
of withholding from the laity all part in the law-making 
department of the Church. The time had now come when 
a large majority of the ministers and the great body of 
the laity favored the sharing of this function with the 

349 



350 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

laity. In another particular the Constitution of the Church 
embodied a feature, relating to secret societies, which, it was 
felt, should be transferred to the field of legislation, to be 
dealt with by the General Conference according to its judg- 
ment, as other subjects from time to time are dealt with. 

It was also felt that some essentials of Christian belief 
which found, in various forms, expression in the body 
of the Church Discipline should be transferred to their 
proper position in the Confession of Faith, while it seemed 
desirable also that certain other doctrines already in the 
Confession should be partially recast, so as to find a clearer 
and surer expression. There was no disposition to treat 
irreverently this excellent utterance of the fathers, a sym- 
bol, indeed, quite worthy of a place among the noblest 
creeds of Christendom. But it was also remembered, that 
these good men who framed the instrument laid no claims 
to a divine inspiration in their work ; that they exercised 
for themselves the power and right of selection, embody- 
ing in its statements their conceptions of fundamental 
religious truth ; and that the Church of the present time 
possesses the same right to exercise its judgment and to 
give to that judgment its proper expression, just as the 
Church of the future will be entitled to think for itself 
and embody its thought in such forms as, in its aggregate 
judgment, may seem to be the expression of fixed truth. 
The exercise of this right is in no way inconsistent with 
the profoundest reverence and love for those who have 
gone before. 

Before the assembling of the General Conference of 
1885 it became apparent, through public and private 
discussion, that the question of amending the Constitu- 
tion of the Church and of revising the Confession of 
Faith would come before that body for consideration, 
and much interest was felt in advance as to the manner 



THE NINETEENTH GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1885 351 

in which it would be met by the conference. The 
v/ay for disposition of the question relating to the amend- 
ment of the Constitution was fairly opened in the bishops' 
quadrennial address. In this address it was treated with 
special reference to the section in the Constitution relat- 
ing to secret societies. The bishops said : 

We need not say to your honorable body that the subject of secret 
societies has become a most perplexing one to our Zion. This is well 
known to you all. Also, it is expected of you by the people whom 
you represent that under the blessing of God you will put this sub- 
ject to rest and bring peace to the Church by wise regulations. To 
this end we recommend : 

First. In that it is admitted that our present Constitution has 
not been as yet submitted to a vote of the whole society, you deter- 
mine whether the whole subject under consideration is or is not yet 
in the hands of the General Conference. 

Second. Should you determine that it is in your hands, then 
transfer the whole subject from the realm of constitutional law to 
the field of legislative enactment, which would be to expunge the 
whole question from the Constitution and bring it into the field 
of legislative enactment, to be handled as the Church, through her 
representatives, may determine from time to time. 

Third. That you limit the prohibitory feature of your enactment 
to combinations, secret and open, to which the Church believes a 
Christian cannot belong. 

Fourth. Should you decide that this constitutional question is 
beyond your control, and in the hands of the whole society, then 
submit the above propositions, properly formulated, to a vote of 
the whole Church, and let a two-thirds vote of those voting be the 
authoritative voice of the Church on the subject. 

This portion of the bishops' address was referred to the 
Committee on Revision. The committee consisted of the 
following persons : S. M. Hippard, I. K. Statton, J. W. 
Hott, J. G. Mosher, J. H. Snyder, W. J. Shuey, George 
Miller, William Dillon, W. H. Price, L. Bookwalter, George 
Plowman, J. W. Fulkerson, C. U. McKee. To this com- 
mittee were also referred, in general, the Confession of 
Faith, the Constitution, and the rule of the Discipline 
relating to secret societies. 



352 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

To this committee was entrusted a responsibility immeas- 
urably greater and more far-reaching in its significance 
than could be laid upon any other. They took ample 
time for deliberation, meeting again and again in session 
to consider the questions involved and the steps that 
should be recommended. Among the members of the 
conference generally the deepest interest was felt in the 
report which the committee might return. On the sixth 
day of the session they presented their report. 

The Report Authorizing the Church Commission, 
To the General Conference: 

Your committee to which were referred the Confession of Faith, 
Constitution, and Section 3 of Chapter X. of the Discipline, beg 
leave to report that we have given these subjects much and most 
prayerful attention, and now submit the result of our deliberations : 

First We find that the present Constitution of the Church was 
never submitted to the suffrage of the members and ministry of the 
Church for ratification either by popular vote or by conventional 
approval, though it purports to be the Constitution of the "mem- 
bers" of the denomination. 

Second. We find, by reference to the records, that throughout 
most of its history it has been the subject of question and differences 
of opinion as to its legality and binding force as an organic law. 

Third. AVe find also that the clause found in Article II., Section 
4, which says, "No rule or ordinance shall at any time be passed to 
change or do away the Conefssion of Faith as it now stands," 
and Article IV., which says, "There shall be no alteration of the 
foregoing Constitution unless by request of two-thirds of the whole 
society," are in their language and apparent meaning so far-reaching 
as to render them extraordinary and impracticable as articles of 
constitutional law. 

Fourth. From the facts and reasons thus indicated we conclude 
that the Constitution has acquired its force only by the partial and 
silent assent of the Church, and that the General Conference has 
a right to institute measures looking to the amendment, modifica- 
tion, or change of the Constitution at any time when it is believed 
that a majority of our people favor a modification thereof. 

Fifth. It is the sense and belief of your committee that the 
Constitution, as it stands, is not in harmony with the present wishes 



THE NINETEENTH GENERAL CONFEBENGE—1885 353 

of our people, as has been indicated in discussions, petitions, and 
elections during the past year. 

Sixth. For these reasons, and for the purpose of finally settling 
all questions of dispute and matters of disturbance to the peace and 
harmony of the Church, so far as the Confession of Faith and the 
Constitution are concerned, your committee would recommend the 
adoption of the following paper, namely : 

CHURCH COMMISSION. 

Whereas, Our Confession of Faith is silent or ambiguous upon 
some of the cardinal doctrines of the Bible as held and believed by 
our Church; and, 

Whereas, It is desirable and needful to so amend and improve 
our present Constitution as to adapt its provisions more fully to the 
wants and conditions of the Church in this and future time; 
therefore. 

Resolved^ By the delegates of the annual conferences of the 
Church of the United Brethren in Christ, in General Conference 
assembled, that a Church Commission, composed of twenty-seven 
persons, and consisting of the bishops of the Church, and ministers 
and laymen appointed and elected by this body, an equal number 
from each bishop's district, — provided that the Pacific District shall 
have two members besides its bishop, — be and is hereby authorized 
and established. 

The duties and powers of this Commission shall be to consider our 
present Confession of Faith and Constitution, and prepare such a form 
of belief and such amended fundamental rules for the government 
of this Church in the future as will, in their judgment, be best 
adapted to secure its growth and efficiency in the work of evangeliz- 
ing the world. 

Provided^ 1. That this Commission shall preserve unchanged in 
substance the present Confession of Faith so far as it is clear. 

2. That it shall also retain the present itinerant plan. 

3. It shall keep sacred the general usages and distinctive prin- 
ciples of the Church on all great moral reforms as sustained by the 
Word of God, in so far as the province of their work may touch them. 

Provided^ further. That in the final adoption, as a whole, of a 
confession of faith and constitution for submission to the Church 
by the Commission, a majority vote of all the members composing 
the Commission shall be necessary. 

Resolved^ That this Commission shall meet at such time and place 
as the Board of Bishops may appoint, and is expected to complete 
its work by January 1, 1886. 

The Commission shall also adopt and cause to be executed a plan 
by which the proposed Confession of Faith and Constitution may 
receive the largest possible attention and expression of approval or 
disapproval by our people, including all necessary regulations for 
taking, counting, and reporting the vote. 

Resolved^ That when, according to the foregoing provisions, the 
result of the vote of the Church shows that two-thirds of all the 
votes cast have been given in approval of the proposed Confession 
of Faith and Constitution, it shall be the duty of the bishops to 
publish and proclaim said result through the official organs of the 

23 



354 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Church. Whereupon the Confession of Faith and Constitution tlius 
ratified and adopted shall become the fundamental belief and organic 
law of this Church. 

Provided^ further, That the adoption of the Constitution as afore- 
said shall in no wise affect any legislation of this General Conference 
for the coming quadrennium. 

Resolved^ That in case of any vacancy in the Commission, by 
death, resignation, or otherwise, the Commission shall fill such 
vacancy. 

The necessary expenses of this Commission shall be paid out of 
the funds of the Printing Establishment. 

Eespectfully submitted, 

S. M. HiPPARD, Chairman. I. K. Statton. 

L. B00KWA1.TER, Secretary. J. H. Snyder. 

W. J. Shuey. Geo. Peowman. 

J. W. HoTT. Geo. Mieler. 

W. H. Price. C. U. McKee. 
J. W. Fulkeeson. 

This paper was signed by eleven out of the thirteen 
members of the Committee on Revision. Two of the 
members, J. G. Mosher and WilHam Dillon, dissented, and 
laid before the conference a minority report. 

Upon a motion being made to adopt the majority 
report, an extended and exhaustive discussion followed. 
For the greater part of two days the speaking continued, 
often with the warmth of men who were contending 
earnestly for their convictions. In the main, the propri- 
eties of dignified discussion were well maintained. In 
itself, the struggle was a momentous one, and was so 
felt to be b}^ every member of the conference. The 
liberals, as the progressive portion of the conference and 
of the Church generally had come to be called, saw in 
the adoption of the report a prospect for an escape from 
the extreme radicalism which had so long dominated 
legislation, and the hope of a broader and freer life for 
the Church. The radicals saw in its adoption the doom 
of principles upon which many of them laid a larger 
insistence than upon any other feature of the church 
life. Each side, therefore, exerted itself to the very best 



THE NINETEENTH GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1885 355 

of its ability to secure a majority in the final vote. It 
was a profoundly interesting hour when the roll was at 
last called for the yeas and nays. Many of the members 
seized a moment's opportunity for explaining their votes, 
some of them making a hurried final plea. The call 
being finished, the presiding bishop announced the result 
to be the decisive majority of seventy-eight yeas to forty-two 
nays. And thus was enacted one of the most important 
measures, as affecting vitally the future polity and life 
of the Church, known to the history of General Conference 
legislation. 

It should be remarked that by no means all who here 
voted nay were in sympathy with the extreme radicalism 
which soon after began to prepare for rending asunder the 
Church. The votes of some were thus cast in the sincere 
belief that the movement was premature and would mili- 
tate against the peace and harmony of the Church. A 
number of those who here voted with the minority stand 
to-day in their places in the Church, satisfied with the 
results which have followed. 

II. THE RULE ON SECRET SOCIETIES. 

The committee having in charge the question of amend- 
ing the Constitution and revising the Confession of Faith 
was also instructed to report on the law relating to secret 
orders. This committee presented a supplementary report, 
which, with a few amendments, was adopted in the fol- 
lowing form : 

We recommend that the following law in relation to secret 
combinations be adopted to take the place of Section 3, Chapter X., 
of Discipline : 

SECRET COMBINATIONS. 

A secret combination, in the sense of the Constitution, is a secret 
league or confederation of persons holding principles and laws at 
variance with the Word of God, and injurious to Christian character 



356 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

as evinced in individual life, and infringing upon the natural, social, 
political, or religious rights of those outside its pale. 

Any member or minister of our Church found in connection with 
such combination shall be dealt with as in other cases of dis- 
obedience to the order and discipline of the Church, — in case of 
members, as found on page 23 of Discipline in answer to the third 
question of Section 3, Chapter IV., and in case of ministers, as 
found in Chapter VI., Section 13, page 65. 

The introduction of this report, a milder expression of 
the law against secret societies, was the occasion of another 
animated discussion. The speaking was less protracted, 
because the vote previously taken indicated in advance 
that ultra-radicalism had lost its ascendency, and that 
prolonged opposition to more moderate legislation would 
be useless. When the report was put upon its passage, 
the vote was found to be nearly the same in number on 
the two sides respectively as that which authorized the 
Church Commission. There were seventy-six yeas to 
thirty-eight nays, with six not voting. 

III. THE CHURCH COMMISSION CHOSEN. 

On the twelfth day of the session the General Conference 
elected the members of the Church Commission, as pro- 
vided for in the paper authorizing its appointment. 
According to this paper the bishops of each of the five 
episcopal districts were made ex officio members, and each 
of the districts was entitled to five representatives, either 
ministerial or lay, except the Pacific Coast District, which 
was entitled to two, thus making the whole number 
twenty-seven. The bishops were J. Weaver, J. Dickson, 
N. Castle, E. B. Kephart, and M. Wright. For the East 
District the following were elected : J. J. Glossbrenner, 
G. A. Funkhouser, L. W. Craumer, J. Hill, J. W. Hott ; 
for the Ohio District : W. J. Shuey, Judge J. A. Shauck, 
H. Garst, D. L. Rike, J. S. Mills; for the Northwest 
District : W. M. Beardshear, A. M. Beal, George Miller, 



THE NINETEENTH OENEBAL CONFERENCE— 1885 357 

H. A. Snepp, I. K. Statton ; for the Southwest District : 
L. Bookwalter, S. D. Kemp, J. B. King, J. H. Snyder, 
J. R. Evans ; for the Pacific Coast District : P. C. Hetzler, 
I. L. Kephart. 

This conference in the main was characterized by a 
spirit of progress. Numerous reports relating to the 
various branches of church enterprise and activity were 
heard and considered, and such action taken as was suit- 
able to the conditions and exigencies of the several inter- 
ests. The conference acquired some further special interest 
from the fact that it was the last which the venerable 
Bishop Glossbrenner attended, after a service of forty 
years in the office of bishop. Just before the final ad- 
journment he made a brief address, which was listened 
to with profound interest. 

IV. PERSONAL NOTES. 

Daniel Kumler Flickinger, D,D. 

Bishop D. K. Flickinger was born near Seven Mile, 
Butler County, Ohio, on May 25, 1824. He is a grandson 
of the venerable Bishop Henry Kumler, Sen. His father, 
Jacob Flickinger, was an early minister in the Miami 
Conference. His mother, Hannah Flickinger, who died 
a few years ago at the great age of ninety-three, was a 
woman of sterling personal qualities, and of most beautiful 
Christian life, and was widely held in loving esteem. Mr. 
Flickinger entered at an early age upon the work of the 
ministry, becoming a member of the Miami Conference. 
He served in various relations as circuit preacher and 
pastor, became interested in foreign missionary work, and 
was one of the first company of three who located the 
mission of the Church in western Africa. He was a 
delegate to the General Conference of 1857, having just 



358 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

then returned from his second trip to Africa. He was 
full of missionary enthusiasm, and was elected by the 
General Conference as corresponding secretary of the 
Missionary Society. To this office he at once addressed 
himself with much earnestness, and achieved great suc- 
cess. He was reelected at six successive General Confer- 
ences, thus serving in the office through a period of 
twenty-eight years. It was most fitting that after so 
long service in this particular field he should, at the 
conference of 1885, he elected to the higher office of 
foreign missionary bishop. For four years more he gave 
his service to the missionary work, with the greater 
attention to the immediate interests of the foreign depart- 
ment. The General Conference of 1889 discontinued this 
office, and with this his official relations to the Church 
ceased. 

In his long connection with the missionary work of the 
Church Dr. Flickinger rendered it an invaluable service. 
Being of an active temperament he kept the Missionary 
Society in close touch with the Church by frequent visits 
to the annual conferences, as also through the columns 
of the Missionary Visitor and Religious Telescope. The 
foreign work never ceased to enlist his special interest, 
and in its service, as missionary secretary and bishop, he 
made eleven visits to the other side of the ocean. He 
secured at various times large sums of money for the 
work, the funds for building the training school at 
Shaingay being obtained during the last four years of his 
official life. Until he was elected to the office of bishop, 
he was also editor of the Missionary Visitor. 

The Church will not soon forget the great service he 
rendered it in the missionary work, or the frequency with 
which he imperiled his life on ocean voyages and in the 
malarious districts in Africa to which his duties took him. 



THE NINETEENTH GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1885 359 

But there can also be no other than a feeling of profound 
regret that, after a period of thirty-two years of official 
relationship with which the Church had honored him, he 
should now, late in the afternoon of life, have seen fit to 
join himself to those who went out from among us, and 
sought through years of grievous strife to injure the fair 
heritage they once had helped to build. Dr. Flickinger 
is now in the seventy-third year of his age, too far 
advanced in life to make so great a mistake. At the 
last session of the Miami Conference, of which he had 
been a member from the beginning of his ministerial 
life, record was regretfully made that he had withdrawn 
irregularly from the Church. 



CHAPTER XX 
THE CHUECH C0MMISSI0:N 

I. PRELIMINARY. 

In the month of November, 1885, was held an assembly 
which will long be remembered as possessing a deep his- 
toric interest. It was the meeting of the Church Com- 
mission appointed by the General Conference in May 
preceding. Agreeably to the instructions of the confer- 
ence the bishops had named the 17th of November 
as the day for the assembling of the Commission, and 
the First United Brethren Church, in the city of Day- 
ton, Ohio, as the place of meeting. In accordance with 
the announcement of the bishops twenty-five of the 
twenty-seven members, as chosen by the General Con- 
ference, assembled on the day and in the place named. 
The two members absent were Bishop J. Dickson and 
Bishop M. Wright. From Bishop Dickson a letter was 
received explaining the reasons for his absence. From 
Bishop Wright no message was received. The names 
of the other commissioners are found in the preceding 
chapter. 

At the hour of nine in the morning Bishop Weaver, 
the senior bishop, called the Commission to order. The 
session was opened with appropriate religious service, 
Bishop Weaver reading the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel 
of John, and Dr. Garst, of Otterbein University, and 
Bishop Castle leading in prayer. Bishop Weaver then 
followed with a brief and impressive address, reminding 



THE CHURCH COMMISSION 361 

the members of the extreme importance and delicacy of 
the duty that was entrusted to them, urging them to seek 
fervently the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and to abide 
in much patience and love in considering each other's 
views as they might find expression through the series 
of days during which they might be together. It was 
arranged that the bishops preside in the order of their 
seniority, as is customary in the General Conferences. 
Rev. Lewis Bookwalter was chosen as secretary, and the 
Commission was duly organized for business. 

The act of the General Conference creating the Com- 
mission and defining its powers and duties was then 
read, after which a number of motions were adopted to 
govern the order of proceeding. A proposition to sit 
with closed doors did not meet with favor. It was not 
deemed desirable that the general public should be invited, 
but that all interested persons should have free entrance 
whenever they wished to attend. A similar proposition 
with respect to reporters for the press was not supported. 
It was suggested that press representatives would exercise 
due courtesy. 

A number of committees were appointed, the most 
important of which were : 

1. On Confession of Faith : J. J. Glossbrenner, H. 
Garst, N. Castle, G. A. Funkhouser, J. W. Hott, W. M. 
Beardshear, M. Wright, J. R. Evans, P. C. Hetzler. 

2. On Constitution: I. K. Statton, E. B. Kephart, 
W. J. Shuey, J. A. Shauck, L. Bookwalter, J. H. Snyder, 
I. L. Kephart, A. M. Beal, J. Weaver. 

3. On Plan of Submission to the Church : J. S. Mills, 
J. Dickson, D. L. Rike, G. Miller, H. A. Snepp, S. D. 
Kemp, J. . B. King, J. Hill, L. W. Craumer. 

The two vacancies occasioned by absence were not 
supplied. 



362 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Thus organized, the Commission proceeded to the re- 
sponsible business before it. The sessions were continued 
through six days. Ample time was given to the several 
committees to consider the parts of the work allotted to 
them, and the sessions were characterized by much earnest 
attention and a deep sense of the responsibility involved. 
Every feature of the several reports as returned by the 
respective committees was considered in the open session 
with the utmost scrutiny, so that in every particular the 
best possible results might be reached. 

It is not necessary to trace here each successive step 
taken in these deeply important proceedings, which are 
preserved in the journal of the Commission. The general 
reader is most interested in seeing the results which were 
reached. These, so far as they relate to the Confession 
of Faith and the Constitution, are the same as now em- 
bodied in the Book of Discipline. The following is the 
Confession of Faith in its revised form : 

II. THE REVISED CONFESSION OF FAITH. 

In the name of God, we declare and confess before all men the 
following articles of our belief: 

AUTICIiE I. 

Of God and the Holy Trinity. 

We believe in the only true God, the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost; that these three are one — the Father in the Son, the 
Son in the Father, and the Holy Ghost equal in essence or being 
with the Father and the Son. 

ARTICLE n. 

Of Creation and Providence. 

We believe that this triune God created the heavens and the 
earth, and all that in them is, visible and invisible; that he sus- 
tains, protects, and governs these, with gracious regard for the 
welfare of man, to the glory of his name. 



THE CHURCH COMMISSION 363 

ARTICLE III. 

Of Jesus Christ. 
We believe in Jesus Christ ; that he is very God and man ; that he 
became incarnate by the power of the Holy Ghost and was born of 
the Virgin Mary ; that he is the Saviour and Mediator of the whole 
human race, if they with full faith accept the grace proffered in 
Jesus; that this Jesus suffered and died on the cross for us, was 
buried, rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven, and 
sitteth on the right hand of God, to intercede for us ; and that he will 
€ome again at the last day to judge the hving and the dead. 

ARTICIiE IV. 

Of the Holy Ghost. 
We believe in the Holy Ghost ; that he is equal in being with the 
Father and the Son ; that he convinces the world of sin, of righteous- 
ness, and of judgment ; that he comforts the faithful and guides them 
into all truth. 

ARTICLE V. 

Of the Holy Scriptures. 
We believe that the Holy Bible, Old and New Testaments, is the 
word of God ; that it reveals the only true way to our salvation ; that 
every true Christian is bound to acknowledge and receive it by the 
help of the Spirit of God as the only rule and guide in faith and 
practice. 

ARTICLE VI. 

Of the Church. 
We believe in a holy Christian church, composed of true believers, 
in which the word of God is preached by men divinely called, and 
the ordinances are duly administered ; that this divine institution is 
for the maintenance of worship, for the edification of believers, and 
the conversion of the world to Christ. 

ARTICLE VII. 

Of the Sacraments. 

We believe that the sacraments. Baptism and the Lord's Supper, are 
to be used in the Church, and should be practiced by all Christians; 
but the mode of baptism and the manner of observing the Lord's 
Supper are always to be left to the judgment and understanding of 
each individual. Also, the baptism of children shall be left to the 
judgment of believing parents. 

The example of the washing of feet is to be left to the judgment 
of each one, to practice or not. 



364 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

ARTICLE VIII. 

Of Depravity. 
We believe that man is fallen from original righteousness, and 
apart from the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is not only entirely- 
destitute of holiness, but is inclined to evil, and only evil, and that 
continually ; and that except a man be born again he cannot see the 
kingdom of heaven. 

ARTICLE IX. 

Of Justification. 
We believe that penitent sinners are justified before God, only by 
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and not by works ; yet that good works 
in Christ are acceptable to God, and spring out of a true and living 
faith. 

ARTICLE X. 

Of Regeneration and Adoption. 
We believe that regeneration is the renewal of the heart of man 
after the image of God, through the word, by the act of the Holy 
Ghost, by which the believer receives the spirit of adoption and is 
enabled to serve God with the will and the affections. 

ARTICLE XL 

Of SanctifiGation. 
We believe that sanctification is the work of God's grace, through 
the word and the Spirit, by which those who have been born again 
are separated in their acts, words, and thoughts from sin, and are 
enabled to live unto God, and to follow holiness, without which no 
man shall see the Lord. 

ARTICLE XII. 

Of the Christian Sabbath. 
We believe that the Christian Sabbath is divinely appointed ; that 
it is commemorative of our Lord's resurrection from the grave, and 
is an emblem of our eternal rest ; that it is essential to the welfare 
of the civil community, and to the permanence and growth of the 
Christian church, and that it should be reverently observed as a day 
of holy rest and of social and public worship. 

ARTICLE XIII. 

Of the Future State. 
We believe in the resurrection of the dead; the future general 
judgment ; and an eternal state of rewards, in which the righteous 
dwell in endless life, and the wicked in endless punishment. 



THE CHURCH COMMISSION 365 

III. THE AMENDED CONSTITUTION. 

The following is the Constitution as amended by the 
Commission : 

In the name of God, we, the members of the Church of the 
United Brethren in Christ, for the work of the ministry, for the 
edifying of the body of Christ, for the more speedy and effectual 
spread of the gospel, and in order to produce and secure uniformity 
in faith and practice, to define the powers and business of the General 
Conference as recognized by this Church, and to preserve inviolate 
the popular will of the membership of the Church, do ordain this 
Constitution: 

article i. 

Section 1. All ecclesiastical power herein granted, to enact or 
repeal any rule or rules of discipline, is vested in a General Con- 
ference, which shall consist of elders and laymen elected in each 
annual-conference district throughout the Church. The number and 
ratio of elders and laymen, and the mode of their election, shall be 
determined by the General Conference. 

Provided^ however, that such elders shall have stood as elders in 
the conferences which they are to represent for no less time than 
three years next preceding the meeting of the General Conference to 
which they are elected ; and that such laymen shall be not less than 
twenty-five years of age, and shall have been members of the Church 
six years, and members in the conference districts which they are to 
represent at least three years next preceding the meeting of the 
General Conference to which they are elected. 

Sec. 2. The General Conference shall convene every four years, 
and a majority of the whole number of delegates elected shall consti- 
tute a quorum. 

Sec. 3. The ministerial and lay delegates shall deliberate and vote 
together as one body ; but the General Conference shall have power 
to provide for a vote by separate orders whenever it deems it best to 
do so; and in such cases the concurrent vote of both orders shall 
be necessary to complete an action. 

Sec. 4. The General Conference shall, at each session, elect bishops 
from among the elders throughout the Church who have stood six 
years in that capacity. 

Sec. 5. The bishops shall be members ex officio and presiding 
officers of the General Conference ; but in case no bishop be present, 
the conference shall choose a president pro tempore. 

Sec. 6. The General Conference shall determine the number and 
boundaries of the annual conferences. 



366 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Sec. 7. The General Conference shall have power to review the 
records of the annual conferences and see that the business of each 
annual conference is done strictly in accordance with the Discipline, 
and approve or annul, as the case may require. 

Sec. 8. The General Conference shall have full control of The 
United Brethren Printing Establishment, The Home, Frontier, and 
Foreign Missionary Society, The Church-Erection Society, The 
General Sabbath-School Board, The Board of Education, and Union 
Biblical Seminary. It shall also have power to establish and manage 
any other organization or institution within the Church which it 
may deem helpful in the work of evangelization. 

Sec. 9. The General Conference shall have power to establish a 
court of appeals. 

Sec. 10. The General Conference may — two-thirds of the mem- 
bers elected thereto concurring — propose changes in, or additions to, 
the Confession of Faith; provided^ that the concurrence of three- 
fourths of the annual conferences shall be necessary to their final 
ratification. 

AKTICLE II. 

The General Conference shall have power, as provided in Article I., 
Section 1, of this Constitution, to make rules and regulations for the 
Church ; nevertheless, it shall be subject to the following limitations 
and restrictions : 

Section 1. The General Conference shall enact no rule or ordi- 
nance which will change or destroy the Confession of Faith; and 
shall establish no standard of doctrine contrary to the Confession of 
Faith. 

Sec. 2. The General Conference shall enact no rule which will 
destroy the itinerant plan. 

Sec. 3. The General Conference shall enact no rule which will 
deprive local preachers of their votes in the annual conferences to 
which they severally belong. 

Sec. 4. The General Conference shall enact no rule which will 
abolish the right of appeal. 

AUTiCLE m. 

Section 1. We declare that all secret combinations which infringe 
upon the rights of those outside their organization, and whose prin- 
ciples and practices are injurious to the Christian character of their 
members, are contrary to the Word of God, and that Christians ought 
to have no connection with them. 

The General Conference shall have power to enact such rules of 
Discipline with respect to such combinations as in its judgment it 
may deem proper. 



THE CHURCH COMMISSION 367 

Sec. 2. We declare that human slavery is a violation of human 
rights, and contrary to the Word of God. It shall therefore in no 
wise be tolerated among us. 

ARTICLE IV. 

The right, title, interest, and claim of all property, both real and 
personal, of whatever name or description, obtained by purchase or 
otherwise, by any person or persons, for the use, benefit, and behoof 
of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, are hereby fully 
recognized, and held to vest in the Church aforesaid. 

ARTICLE V. 

Section 1. Amendments to this Constitution may be proposed by 
any General Conference, — two-thirds of the members elected thereto 
concurring, — which amendments shall be submitted to a vote of the 
membership throughout the Church, under regulations authorized by 
said conference. 

A majority of all the votes cast upon any submitted amendment 
shall be necessary to its final ratification. 

Sec. 2. The foregoing amended Constitution shall be in force from 
and after the first Monday after the second Thursday of May, 1889, 
upon official proclamation thereof by the Board of Bishops ; provided^ 
that the General Conference elected for 1889 shall be the lawful legis- 
lative body under the amended Constitution, with full power, until 
its final adjournment, to enact such rules as this amended Consti- 
tution authorizes. 

IV. THE PLAN OF SUBMISSION. 

It was apparent from the first that the manner of 
submitting the revised Confession of Faith and the 
amended Constitution to the people of the Church for 
approval or rejection would be questions of the most 
serious import. Several things were necessary to be pro- 
vided for. Among these was, first, that the amendments 
submitted should be brought as widely as possible to the 
attention of the Church, in order to secure the largest vote 
possible. Second, it was necessary that the method of 
taking the vote should be so clearly defined as to provide 
against liability to mistakes in the balloting. And, third, 
it was of the highest importance that every provision be 



368 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

clearly stated according to constitutional and legal forms, 
so that no irregularity might lead to the invalidation of 
the results. The whole subject was given the most careful 
attention by the committee who had this part of the duties 
of the Commission in charge, and the report as made by 
them, and after further consideration adopted, was so well 
devised in all its details that in all the searching scrutiny 
which followed subsequently in the civil courts nothing 
could be discovered that tended in any way to weaken 
the verdict rendered by the people in their vote approving 
the amendments. 

The time for taking the vote was fixed for the entire 
month of November, 1888, thus giving, from the time 
of the sitting of the Commission, nearly three years for 
the consideration and discussion of the proposed amend- 
ments. Every means was employed, by publication in 
the Religious Telescope and the Frohliche Botschafter, and 
in pamphlets and circulars, to inform the people concern- 
ing the nature of the proposed amendments, and every 
phase was submitted to the freest and amplest discussion, 
not only in the periodicals, but also in the annual con- 
ferences and elsewhere. 

Provision was made for a separate vote on the Con- 
fession of Faith and the Constitution, so that each person 
might vote for one only, or for both, or against both. 
Provision, however, was also made for a separate vote on 
each of the two most important sections of the Con- 
stitution, that on lay delegation, and that relating to secret 
combinations, thus securing thorough flexibility in the 
arrangements and the fullest freedom for the expression 
of every individual preference. 

The form of ballot used in taking the vote was as 
follows : 



THE CHUBCH COMMISSION 369 

1888. 
United Brethren in Christ. 

BALLOT 

On amendnients to the Confession of Faith and Constitution. 
Members wishing to vote NO on either proposition must erase 
the word YES and insert NO. 

Confession of Faith YES. 

Amended Constitution YES. 

Lay Delegation YES. 

Section on Secret Combinations YES. 

Very complete provision was made for boards of tellers, 
local, conference, and general. The local boards consisted 
of the pastor, leaders, and stewards of each society. The 
conference boards of tellers were to be appointed by the 
annual conferences respectively, each at its session next 
preceding the month of November, 1888. The General 
Board of Tellers was appointed by the Commission itself, 
and consisted of J. Weaver, G. A. Funkhouser, L. Book- 
waiter, D. L. Eike, W. J. Shuey, J. A. Shauck, and H. 
Garst. All reports from the conference boards of tellers 
were required to be forwarded to the General Board of 
Tellers, at Dayton, Ohio, on or before January 1, 1889, 
and the General Board was required to make its report 
to the Board of Bishops not later than January 15, 1889. 

V. OPPOSITION TO THE REVISION. 

The reader has seen that the action of the General 
Conference in creating the Church Commission met, dur- 
ing the session of that body, with strong opposition. This 
opposition did not by any means cease after the conference 
adjourned. On the other hand, every available agency 
was now employed to create throughout the Church a 
sentiment adverse to the step taken by the General Con- 
ference. Among these agencies was the publication of a 
weekly paper, the Christian Conservator^ whose mission was 

24 



370 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

largely, if not chiefly, to oppose the revision contemplated. 
The subject was also freely discussed in all its aspects 
through the columns of the Religious Telescope, both for 
and against. In the sessions of the annual conferences 
and elsewhere it was brought up for debate and action. 
This busy opposition, wdiich began at once after the 
adjournment of the General Conference, became greatly 
intensified after the Commission had held its meeting, as 
directed by the General Conference, and published the 
results of its work to the Church. The Confession of 
Faith and the Constitution as revised and amended were 
subjected to the closest scrutiny from every standpoint, 
and every conceivable form of opposition to them was 
set up. As far as every agency could be brought to 
reach the people throughout the Church, it was sought 
to influence their minds against the amended instruments, 
so as to bring about their failure by the popular vote. The 
amendments were characterized as revolutionary, as out- 
rages, as involving a breach of faith, and the whole pro- 
ceeding was declared unconstitutional and violent ; and 
it was sought to persuade the people that if they were 
adopted the Church would no longer be the same Church, 
but would be a new and dififerent body. This opposition 
was continued in its full activity until after the people 
had spoken through the ballot box, almost three years 
after the Commission had concluded its work. 

Notwithstanding this opposition and the long-sustained 
effort to aflfect unfavorably the mind of the Church toward 
the amended Constitution and Confession, when the vote 
was counted, the results, as will be seen a little farther 
on, were found to be overwhelmingly in favor of adop- 
tion. The vote was taken in connection with that for 
delegates to the General Conference of May, 1889, at 
which the number of ballots cast was the largest in the 



THE CHURCH COMMISSION 371 

history of the Church. The vote was a most emphatic 
as well as conclusive expression of the will of the people 
in regard to each particular of the amended forms of 
these fundamental instruments as they came from the 
hands of the Commission. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE TWENTIETH GENERAL CONFERENCE — 1889 

I. PRELIMINARY. 

The assembling of the twentieth General Conference, 
that of May, 1889, was an event that was anticipated 
with profound interest throughout the entire denomina- 
tion. This interest centered chiefly in the fact that this 
conference was expected to pass upon the work of the 
Church Commission appointed by the General Conference 
of 1885 and upon the popular vote taken upon the Con- 
fession of Faith and Constitution of the Church as revised 
and amended by the Commission. 

The conference was held in the city of York, Penn- 
sylvania, in the York Opera House in that city, the 
session opening at two o'clock p.m. on Thursday, May 9. 
Bishop Weaver, the senior bishop of the Church, called 
the conference to order. All the other bishops were pres- 
ent — J. Dickson, N. Castle, E. B. Kephart, M. Wright, 
D. K. Flickinger. The delegates from the annual con- 
ferences numbered one hundred and twenty-five, the 
entire body consisting of one hundred and thirty-one 
members. The conference continued in session from May 
9 to 22. 

The proceedings of this General Conference were marked 
throughout with a deep interest. A few of the more sali- 
ent features are here to be spoken of. The first and fullest 
reference must relate to the action taken on the results of 
the revision of the Constitution and Confession, and the 
vote of the people thereon. 

372 



THE TWENTIETH GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1889 373 
II. ADDRESS OF THE BISHOPS. 

That portion of the quadrennial address of the bishops 
relating to the necessity for revision, the work of the 
Church Commission, and the vote of the people possesses 
a prominent historic interest, and the reader will be 
pleased to see it included here. The bishops said : 

By the action and authorization of the General Conference of May, 
1885, a Church Commission was convened on the 17th day of the 
following November, in Dayton, Ohio, to take under consideration 
the Confession of Faith and Constitution of the Church, and to prepare 
such a form of belief and such amended fundamental rules for its 
government in the future as would, in their judgment, be best 
adapted to secure its growth and efficiency in the work of evangel- 
izing the world. After six days' deliberation upon these grave 
interests, to which were given the largest wisdom, the wisest thought, 
the closest scrutiny, and the most pious judgment within the capa- 
bilities of the Commission, a report was unanimously agreed upon, 
and in November last, by the largest expression ever obtained in 
the denomination, was adopted, the vote being in excess of a two- 
thirds majority. 

We refrain from argument in support of what was done, but may 
be allowed some general statements to you upon a question of such 
wide and general interest to the Church as the one now challenging 
your most godly consideration. 

It is sadly known throughout the Church that there has been for 
a time a growing friction along the line of what has been known as 
the organic law of the Church. Two antagonistic views have 
obtained and found ample advocacy in the past. The one is, that we 
have a valid Constitution, of absolute and unquestioned force, bind- 
ing on all the members of the Church, and also so bounding, restrict- 
ing, and limiting the action of the General Conference itself, that it 
cannot legislate along certain lines nor adopt certain measures, well 
defined in the limiting terms of the Constitution, without being 
guilty of usurpation and revolution. The other view is, that the 
General Conference, being a constitutional body, has judicial powers, 
is capable of judicial action, and hence, being the highest authority 
known in the jurisprudence of the Church, may, by right, adjudicate 
questions of dispute, interpret and construe law, as well as devise 
and formulate plans for the furtherance of its benevolent designs 
and its mission of mercy among men. 

It is furthermore held that the restrictions which have been sup- 



374 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

posed to form an impassable barrier to the authority of the General 
Conference are so far-reaching in their demands, and so ambiguous 
in their meaning, as to render them utterly untenable in a day of 
advanced thought and of expanding measures. It has been in a 
measure demonstrated that a feature of absolute immutability has 
been impressed on her Constitution, so that its amendment, according 
to its own terms, is an utter impossibility. This absolutism in our 
system, this inflexibility of jDrovision for amendment, is being 
regarded, in the light of recent experience, as exceedingly unfor- 
tunate. While any change in fundamental principles should be 
rendered difficult of accomplishment, yet some flexibihty should 
obtain in relations where the knowledge of actors is imperfect and 
their judgment confessedly fallible. 

Now, while one view or line of interpretation, if pushed to the 
utmost limit of a literal construction, would make any change what- 
ever utterly impossible, and while the other view, if expanded to the 
projDortions of the most liberal construction possible, would make 
questionable inroads upon our fundamental principles, we must, 
avoiding these extremes, seek the happy mean between so much 
conservatism, on the one hand, that any change is impossible, and 
so much flexibility, on the other hand, that organic law has no 
sufficient safeguard. 

Certainly a church constitution should have some possible method 
of procedure by which it could be amended. That those who gave 
us the Constitution intended to put it practically beyond the possi- 
bility of alteration or modification, has never been insisted upon. 
And yet the Church found itself in this very attitude when it came 
to meet a growing demand for more pliant and equitable measures 
arising from the exigencies of the times. 

With a view of divesting this subject of all ambiguity, extirpating 
all doubt, and thus avoiding possible perplexing difficulties in the 
future, this whole matter was submitted to this Commission, where 
it found full and careful expression, and then went to a vote of the 
Church with such a result as will come to your notice and consid- 
eration by the official report to be hereafter submitted. 

Beloved brethren, this may be the crisis period in the histor^'^ of 
the Church. You will weigh well what has been done. The church 
of God is your priceless heritage. It is the purchase of the precious 
blood of Christ. As the chosen representatives of a Christian people, 
whose views and wishes you are supposed to reflect, you can afford 
to bid utter defiance to self and to selfish ends. You are representa- 
tives. The Church of the latter part of the nineteenth centurj^ has 
called you to conserve what to her is precious and priceless — sound- 
ness of doctrine and clearness of experience. These preserv^ed, the 



THE TWENTIETH GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1889 375 

ancient landmarks still remain. New worlds await your conquest, 
unknown regions await your invasion, if you are men of cultured 
brain and consecrated heart. We may be aggressive without being 
ecclesiastical vandals; we may be conservative without being reli- 
gious bigots. 

True reformers and true conservatives walk hand in hand. Their 
goal is the same. They differ only in method, not in purpose; in 
head, not in heart. The one is not the enemy of progress, the other 
is not the enemy of conservation, yet either is liable to so judge the 
other. "Judge not, that ye be not judged." 

As ministers, representative men, we can be active without be- 
coming bitter partisans, be conservative without becoming stoical, 
and be progressive without becoming fanatical. 

Your action will be decisive. Well may you tremble in the pres- 
ence of the greatness of the work to be done. The voice of history 
both warns and cheers. Be cautious, but not faltering; brave, but 
not rash ; firm, but not captious. The future of this Church, as well 
as the cause of God in general, will be helped or hindered by what 
we do. *' Quit you like men, be strong.'' 

The address was signed by Bishops Weaver, Dickson, 
Castle, Kephart, and Flickinger. Bishop Wright, who had 
declined to give it his signature, read a separate address, 
dissenting as to the portion here quoted. 

III. REPORT OF THE CHURCH COMMISSION. 

On the second day of the session, on motion of W. 
McKee, the report of the Church Commission was ordered 
to be read. W. J. Shuey read the report. 

To the Bishops and the General Conference of the Church of the 

United Brethren in Christy convened in the city of York, Penn- 
sylvania, May 9, 1889: 

Dear Fathers and Brethren: During the session of the 
Oeneral Conference of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ 
held in Fostoria, Ohio, in May, 1885, a "Church Commission," 
composed of twenty-seven persons, was "authorized and established." 

The duties and powers of said Commission were distinctly and 
fully defined, as the records of your body will show. 

In pursuance of this action of the General Conference, the Com- 
mission thus authorized and appointed, on call of the bishops of the 
Ohurch, assembled in the First United Brethren Church in the city 



376 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

of Dayton, Ohio, on the 17th day of November, A.D. 1885, and, after 
mature and most prayerful deUberation during six days and nights, 
prepared for the consideration and adoption of and by the Church 
the following Confession of Faith and amended Constitution : 

[Here follow the revised Confession and amended Constitution 
(which the reader has seen in the preceding chapter), the Plan of 
Submission, and the Address of the Bishops to the Church as pub- 
lished in January, 1886. The report then continues:] 

It will be perceived that the time adopted for casting the vote 
of the Church w^as the month of November, 1888, the time being 
identical with that for electing delegates to the General Conference 
of 1889. 

During the three years elapsing between the meeting of the Com- 
mission and the first publication of its work and the time of voting 
on its recommendations, no labor and expense were spared to secure 
the "largest possible attention" of our people to the proposed Con- 
fession of Faith and amended Constitution. Through the official 
organs of the Church, by pamphlet, and by comparison of the new 
with the old — tens of thousands in number — we endeavored to 
enlighten and interest our membership on the grave subjects in hand. 
Many of our pastors read the prepared documents from their pulpits, 
and by comment and explanation sought to make their provisions 
plain to all who were to exercise their prerogative to vote upon them. 

The following is the aggregate vote for and against the several 
propositions submitted : 

For the Confession of Faith 51,070 

Against 3,310 

Majority for Confession of Faith 47,760 

Number required to adopt 36,245 

For the amended Constitution 50,685 

Against 3,659 

Majority for the amended Constitution 47,026 

Number required to adopt 36,230 

For lay delegation 48,825 

Against 5,634 

Majority for lay delegation 43,191 

Number required to adopt 36,306 

For section on secret combinations 46,994 

Against 7,298 

Majority for section on secret combinations 39,696 

Number required to adopt 36,194 

Total number of votes cast for and against the several prop- 
ositions 64,369 



THE TWENTIETH GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1889 377 

All the separate propositions having been adopted by the required 
two-thirds majority of all who voted, the Confession of Faith and 
amended Constitution, as framed and recommended by your Com- 
mission, are become "the fundamental belief and organic law of 
the Church of the United Brethren in Christ." 

Your Commission kept a full and accurate record of its proceed- 
ings, which record we herewith present as a part of this report, and 
for inspection and ratification or seal of approval of General Con- 
ference, and ask that your Commission be discharged. 

Finally, brethren, permit us to assure you that in the performance 
of the extraordinary and delicate duties assigned us we sought only 
to be guided by divine wisdom. In all our deliberations the kindest 
spirit prevailed, and the unanimous feeling of the members present 
was that our Father in heaven was not unmindful of our need of his 
blessing. Our chief concern has not ceased to be that the results 
of this reconstruction of our articles of religion and organic church 
polity may redound to the highest prosperity of the cause of our 
Lord Jesus Christ as represented by our denomination. 
Respectfully submitted, 

J. Weaver. I. L. Kephart. 

N. Castle. A. M. Beal. 

E. B. Kephart. J. S. Mills. 

W. M. Beardshear. John A. Shauck. 

Lewis Bookwalter. George Miller. 

W. J. Shuey. John Hill. 

J. W. Hott. J. H. Snyder. 

D. L. RiKE. H. A. Snepp. 

L K. Statton. p. C. Hetzler. 

J. R. Evans. Hentiy Garst. 

G. A. FUNKHOUSER. 

Mr. Shuey explained that this report was signed by 
twenty-one of the twenty-five members participating in 
the work of the Commission. Of the remaining four 
Bishop Glossbrenner had died, and three were too remote 
to append their signatures. They were apprised of the 
purport of the report, and gave their assent to it. 

On motion of B. F. Booth a special committee of seven 
was appointed to whom the report was referred. The com- 
mittee consisted of T. D. Adams, D, E. Miller, C. T. Stearn, 
H. Floyd, D. Shuck, G. M. Mathews, and J. Medsger. 



378 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

IV. APPROVAL RECOMMENDED. 

On Saturday morning, the third day of the session, after 
some preliminary business, this committee presented the 
following report, through its secretary, G. M. Mathews : 

To the General Conference: 

Your committee, to whom was referred the report to your body of 
the Commission constituted by the General Conference of four years 
ago, and charged with the duty of considering our present Confession 
of Faith and Constitution, and of preparing such form of belief, and 
such amended fundamental rules for the government of this Church 
in the future, as would, in their judgment, be best adapted to secure 
its growth and efficiency in the work of evangelizing the world, 
would beg to report as follows, viz.: 

1. We have carefully examined the records of the proceedings 
of the Commission, and find them fully and accurately kept, and 
indicating a thorough consideration of all matters involved in their 
work, with impartial purpose to reach only right conclusions. 

2. We have also compared the instructions and limitations by the 
former General Conference with their work as finally adopted by 
said Commission, and find that said instructions and limitations 
were obeyed and carried out with commendable accuracy. 

3. The "Plan of Submission" we believe to have been in accord 
with the best methods of accomplishing the best results. Three 
years were given for discussion and reflection by our people as to the 
merits of the two documents submitted for their final approval or 
disapproval. All reasonable efibrts were employed to secure the 
largest possible attention of aU whose right and duty it was to vote 
on the propositions submitted. 

4. In view of the fact that the proceedings and acts of the Cora- 
mission have been found to be regular and in accord with the direc- 
tions given by the highest authority known to our Church, your 
committee would recommend the adoption of the following, viz. : 

Resolved^ by the General Conference of the Church of the United 
Brethren in Christ, in quadrennial session assembled in the city of 
York, Pennsylvania, May 9, 1889, 

1. That the recorded proceedings of the Commission, including 
the revised Confession of Faith and amended Constitution, as formu- 
lated and submitted to the vote of the Church, together with the 
method of submission and all other acts by which the will of the 
Church was ascertained thereon, are hereby approved and confirmed. 

2. That because of the truth that the revised Confession of Faith 
and amended Constitution as a whole, and all the separate propo- 
sitions thereof, submitted to the membership of our Church have 



THE TWENTIETH GENERAL CONFEBENCE—1889 379 

been adopted by more than the required two-thirds of all the votes 
cast thereon, as required by the General Conference of 1885, it is 
hereby declared and published by this conference, and for itself, 
that the said revised Confession of Faith and amended Constitution, 
as framed and submitted by the lawfully constituted Commission 
of the Church, are become the fundamental belief and organic law 
of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, and will be in full 
force and effect on and after the 13th day of May, A.D. 1889, upon 
the proclamation of the bishops, as provided and ordered in the said 
amended Constitution. 

This report was signed by five members of the com- 
mittee, Halleck Floyd and D. Shuck presenting a dis- 
senting report. 

The reader will observe that the main points in this 
report relate to the questions whether the Commission 
adhered in all points to the instructions of the act under 
which it was appointed, whether the plan of submission 
to the people had been properly framed and carried out, 
and whether in the vote cast the requisite two-thirds 
majority had been given for approval of the amended 
instruments. The General Conference was not now asked 
to ratify the revised Confession and amended Constitu- 
tion. That had been done by the great body of the 
Church, the essential authority upon this question. It 
now only remained for the General Conference, the high- 
est judicial authority in the Church, to inquire if all the 
proceedings leading to the results reached had been regu- 
lar and in orderly form, and place its approval upon the 
work of the Commission as prayed for by the Church. 
This inquiry was made through the committee of seven, 
and their report was now before the conference for 
approval. 

The motion to adopt was followed by a prolonged dis- 
cussion, the vote being reached just before the evening 
adjournment. The discussion on the part of the opposition 
was largely of the nature of a reiterated protest, no hope 
being entertained of overthrowing by a negative vote all 



380 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

that had been done, or of modifying to any material 
extent the final results. 

When the report was finally put upon its passage, it 
was adopted by a majority of more than five-sixths of 
the entire body, one hundred and ten members voting 
in the affirmative to twenty in the negative. One mem- 
ber who was absent afterward recorded his vote on the 
affirmative side. Five of those who voted with the 
minority did not unite with them in their later pro- 
ceedings. 

Thus by the nearly unanimous voice of the General 
Conference were the proceedings throughout leading up 
to the final consummation declared regular and valid, 
and the amended instruments needed only the further 
proclamation of the bishops, as had been duly provided 
for, to become the statement of the fundamental belief 
and law of the Church. 

V. AN OLIVE BRANCH. 

After the adoption of the report Dr. J. W. Hott, from 
a sincere desire to preserve kindly fellowship with those 
voting in the minority, offered the following paper : 

Whereas, For the past four years a number of our brethren, 
members of this General Conference, and others, have, for reasons 
which they have often expressed, vigorously and determinately 
opposed the Church Commission and the adoption of the revised 
Confession of Faith and the Constitution of the Church adopted 
by the people; and 

Whereas, They now doubtless feel disappointed and aggrieved 
by the results of the action taken by the Church ; therefore, 

Resolved^ 1. We, the members of the General Conference of the 
United Brethren in Christ, assembled in York, Pennsylvania, hereby 
express our deep regret that any of our brethren should not be able 
to cheerfully acquiesce in the decision of the great majority of the 
votes of our people cast in the election held in November, 1888, 
upon these documents then submitted to the Church and now 
approved by this General Conference. 



THE TWENTIETH GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1889 381 

2. We hereby express our appreciation of the honesty and sin- 
cerity of our brethren opposed to the action of the majority of the 
Church, and we honor them for their faithfulness to their beliefs. 

3. We hereby tender anew to these brethren our sympathy and 
fellowship in the love of Christ our Saviour, and in the charity 
of Otterbein and Boehm, the beloved founders of our Church. We 
shall use our influence in the time to come to the end that these 
brethren shall be treated as if these differences had never existed ; 
and we most sincerely welcome them anew to our fellowship in 
the work of the gospel, and we shall deeply regret it if any of them 
should in any way diminish their interest in the work of the Church 
in which we have so long labored together, and which is alike dear 
to us all. 

Several of those toward whom the paper was designed 
as a kindly expression strongly objected to its passage, 
and, as the time for adjournment was at hand, it was 
referred to the Committee on the State of the Church. 
By reason of events which occurred two days later, it was 
not again called up. 

VI. THE PROCLAMATION OF THE BISHOPS. 

One more step remained to be taken to complete all 
that was requisite to put the amended forms of the Con- 
fession and Constitution in full effect. This was the official 
proclamation of the bishops that the amendments had been 
approved by the requisite majority of the vote of the 
Church. This proclamation was made to the conference 
on Monday morning, the 13th day of May. On the same 
day it was also published to the Church at large through 
the official organs, the Religious Telescope and the Frohliche 
Botschafter. The following is the proclamation : 

The Board of Bishops of the Church of the United Brethren m 
Christ to the said Church at large and its General Conference 
assembled : 

Brethren Beloved : In accordance with resolution 2, under pro- 
viso 2, of the Church Commission, enacted by the General Confer- 
ence of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ which 



^ 



382 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

convened on the 12th day of May, 1885, in the city of Fostoria, 
Ohio, which resolution is as follows: 

Resolved^ That when, according to the foregoing provisions, the 
result of the vote of the Church shows that two-thirds of all the 
votes cast have been given in approval of the proposed Confession 
of Faith and Constitution, it shall be the duty of the bishops to 
publish and proclaim said result through the official organs of the 
Church ; whereupon the Confession of Faith and Constitution thus 
ratified and adopted shall become the fundamental belief and organic 
law of this Church, 

We, the bishops, having duly received the report of the Board 
of Tellers appointed to count the vote, do hereby publish and pro- 
claim the result of the vote of the Church in accord with the 
provisions of the General Conference of 1885, and also in accord 
with the provisions of the amended Constitution itself. Article V., 
Section 2, which result is as follows: 

[ Here follow the official figures showing the vote on each separate 
proposition, with the majorities in each case, and the number neces- 
sary to adopt. They are the same as given on page 376.] 

And the result being the required two-thirds, we do hereby publish 

and proclaim the document thus voted to be the Confession of Faith 

and Constitution of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, 

and we hereby pass from under the old and legislate under the 

amended Constitution. J. Weaver. 

J. Dickson. 

X. Castle. 

E. B. Kephakt. 

D. K. Flickinger. 
York, Pennsylvania, May 13, 1889. 

The proclamation was read by Bishop Kephart. The 
reading was Kstened to with the most profound interest 
by the conference and the many visitors who filled the 
large hall to hear the official proclamation. The moment 
was felt to be one laden with the deepest significance as 
related to the future of the Church. 

The proclamation, it will be observed, was signed by 
five of the six bishops of the Church. 

VII. A DRAMATIC SCENE THE SECESSION OF THE RADICALS. 

When the reading had been completed, there occurred 
a scene of much interest, of which the official pub- 



THE TWENTIETH GENERAL CONFEBENCE—1889 383 

lished "Proceedings" do not take immediate notice, 
the occurrence not being a part of the regular proceed- 
ings of the conference. As soon as Bishop Kephart had 
resumed his seat, the bishop whose name was not attached 
to the proclamation. Bishop Milton Wright, with fourteen 
others of the twenty who had previously voted against 
approval, arose and left the hall. These fifteen men 
immediately proceeded to the Park Opera House, in the 
city of York, which had previously been secured for the 
purpose, where they assumed to continue the morning 
session of the conference, and so on through their several 
sittings until they finally adjourned. They further assumed 
to be the General Conference from the beginning, on the 
9th day of May, and as such to be the true and only 
representatives of the Church of the United Brethren in 
Christ, and that the General Conference from which they 
had withdrawn was not the General Conference of the 
Church. As their number was only fifteen, and the num- 
ber of annual conferences which they assumed to represent 
was forty-nine, they proceeded to fill vacancies from such 
persons as were present, until their number was increased 
to about thirty. Upon the assumption that they were 
the true General Conference of the Church, they elected 
persons to fill the general offices of the Church, as bishops, 
editors, publishing agent, missionary and other secretaries 
and treasurers, and the various church boards. They pro- 
ceeded upon the very extraordinary presumption that the 
one hundred and sixteen members, including five bishops, 
who continued in their seats and in the proper and 
orderly discharge of their duties, constituted no longer 
the General Conference of the Church, but had, by placing 
the seal of their approval upon the various revisionary and 
amendatory steps, including the nearly unanimous vote 
of the Church, separated themselves from the Churcli, and 



384 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

that thenceforth all their transactions possessed no longer 
any validity or binding power. 

VIII. THE WITHDRAWAL RECOGNIZED. 

The General Conference deemed it proper to recognize 
in an official way the withdrawal of these members of the 
conference, and in the forenoon of Tuesday, May 14, the 
following action was taken : 

Whereas, Milton Wright, a bishop ; J. K. Alwood, W. H. Clay, 
and C. H. Kiracofe, delegates from North Ohio Conference; H. T. 
Barnaby and W. S. Titus, delegates from Michigan Conference; 
C. L. Wood and G. A. Bowles, delegates from North Michigan 
Conference; C. Bender, a delegate from Bock River Conference; 
A. Bennett, a delegate from Oregon Conference; A. W. Geeslin, 
a delegate from Missouri Conference, and Halleck Floyd, a delegate 
from White River Conference, have actively participated in the 
proceedings of this body from its organization on the ninth day 
of May instant until the close of the third day's session ; and 

Whereas, The bishop and these delegates have vacated their 
seats in this body and have joined in the formation of another 
church organization, outside and separate and apart from the place 
properly and officially occupied by this the lawfully elected General 
Conference of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ; 
therefore, 

Resolved^ That the aforesaid persons are hereby declared as having 
irregularly withdrawn from this body and the Church, and are, in 
view of the facts above recited, no longer ministers or members 
of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. 

The question being asked why the names of all of the 
members from the White River Conference did not appear 
in this paper, it was explained that by the report of the 
Committee on Credentials only one of them was legally 
entitled to a seat. The others could not withdraw from 
the conference. The reader will also here note that five 
of the twenty who voted against the report on the Com- 
mission work did not go with the seceders, but retained 
their places in the conference and the Church. From 
various considerations they did not approve the Commis- 



THE TWENTIETH GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1889 385 

sion movement, but they had no sympathy with secession. 
Among these was Ex-Bishop D. Shuck, of Cahfornia. 

IX. PROTESTS AGAINST THE COMMISSION WORK. 

One more paper must here be introduced as part of the 
official history of this period. Soon after the pubHcation 
of the revised Confession and amended Constitution, in 
January, 1886, petitions and memorials against its adop- 
tion were put into circulation throughout the Church, the 
purpose of which was to ask the General Conference of 
1889 to give its voice against approval. These papers 
were brought to the General Conference, and referred to 
the appropriate committee, of which Ex-Bishop Shuck 
was chairman. Mr. Shuck, from this committee, on the 
sixth day of the session, submitted the following report : 

1. We find that the petitions submitted to us come from forty- 
one conferences, aggregating 16,282 petitioners. 

2. Said petitions have been in circulation for three years, contain 
names of parties who are dead, of parties who are not members of 
the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, names of persons who 
voted for the revised Confession of Faith and amended Constitution. 

But notwithstanding said irregularities, adding the number of 
petitioners to the number of votes cast against tlie Commission act, 
there still remains a respectable two-thirds majority in favor of the 
revised Confession of Faith and amended Constitution. 

And notwithstanding the facts above referred to, we do not call in 
question the integrity of or the interest taken in the prosperity of 
our Zion by the petitioners. And we would earnestly pray such 
petitioners and their friends that they do not hastily form their 
conclusions touching the action of the General Conference on the 
work of the Commission; also, that their interest in the Church 
of their choice remain undisturbed. 

Your committee recommend that their petitions, with the names 
of the petitioners, be deposited with the publishing agent at Dayton, 
Ohio, to be preserved by said agent for future reference. 

It may occur to the reader that of those voting against 
the several propositions submitted to them, ranging from 
3,310 as the smallest to 7,298 as the largest minority, 

25 



386 THE TJNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

probably much the greater number were included among 
the 16,282 petitioners, so that in adding this number to 
the several minorities they must be twice counted. 

X. MISCELLANEOUS. 

Among other important measures adopted by this Gen- 
eral Conference was one relating to lay delegation in the 
General Conference. The amended Constitution making 
provision for this, the conference was now able to take 
this step, and arrangements were accordingly made for 
the admission of lay delegates in the General Conference 
of 1893. 

It had long been the practice of the Church to permit 
women, who felt themselves to be divinely impelled, to 
speak from the platform or pulpit, but until now no 
provision had been made for ordaining them to the sacred 
office of ministers. The number of women wishing to 
preach the word has always been and still is few, but 
this conference placed upon record distinct action defining 
their status. The following was adopted : 

Not wishing to hinder any Christian who may be moved by the 
Holy Spirit to labor in the vineyard of the Lord for the salvation of 
souls, it is ordered that whenever any godly woman presents herself 
before the quarterly or annual conference as an applicant for 
authority to preach the gospel among us, she may be granted 
license, provided she complies with the usual conditions required 
of men who wish to enter the ministry of our Church. When 
such person shall have passed the requhed examination before the 
regular committees, she may, after the usual probation, be ordained. 

The proposition to establish a quarterly publication, to be 
called the United Brethren Quarterly Review, was con- 
sidered and adopted. 

A Historical Society for the Church having been organ- 
ized some years previously, the conference, on a memorial 
from the society, adopted the following : 



THE TWENTIETH GENERAL CONEERENCE—1889 387 

In view of the increasing importance to be attached to securing 
and preserving the papers, letters, relics, etc., connected with our 
church fathers and church life, 

Resolved, That this General Conference hereby officially recog- 
nizes the Historical Society of which Bishop Kephart is now presi- 
dent, as the Historical Society of the Church of the United Brethren 
in Christ ; and that said society shall through its officers make a 
quadrennial report to the General Conference. 

Bishops Weaver, Kephart, Castle, and Dickson were re- 
elected. J. W. Hott was elected as bishop for the Pacific 
Coast District. W. J. Shuey was continued as publishing 
agent. I. L. Kephart was elected editor of the Religious 
Telescope, with M. E,. Drury reelected as associate. D. Berger 
was continued as editor of Sunday-school literature, W. 
Mittendorf as editor of the German periodicals, B. F. Booth 
as general missionary secretary, and W. McKee as general 
missionary treasurer. John Hill was elected secretary of 
the Church-Erection Society, D. R. Miller was continued as 
financial manager of Union Biblical Seminary, and J. W. 
Etter was elected editor of the proposed Quarterly Review, 
and assistant editor of the Sunday-school literature. 

XI. PERSONAL NOTES. 

James W. Hott, D.D., LL.D. 

That was a wise choice which the General Conference 
made when it added Dr. James W. Hott to the episcopal 
board. He was in the full vigor of early middle life, 
being in the forty-second year of his age, and had attained 
the ripe maturity of a strong intellectual manhood. He 
possessed the advantages gained through a broad and 
varied experience as preacher and editor, and by exten- 
sive travel in our own and foreign countries. To this 
he added a fervent devotion to the Church in which he 
was born, and to which he had hitherto given his life in 
unremitting service. 



388 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Bishop Hott was born some miles from Winchester, in 
Frederick County, Virginia, on November 15, 1844. He 
was of United Brethren parentage, his father, Jacob F. Hott, 
being a minister in the Virginia Conference, and his mother, 
who is still living, being a woman of devout spirit and 
strong mental and moral endowments. Of the eight chil- 
dren born to them six were sons, four of them becoming 
ministers, and a fifth dying while preparing for the same 
work. One, C. M. Hott, after twenty-two years in the 
active ministry, closed his earthly life at Woodbridge, Cal- 
ifornia. The bishop's early education w^as chiefly obtained 
in the excellent private schools near his home, and in his 
father's well-chosen library. At the age of thirteen he 
was converted and received into the Church under the 
labors of the late Rev. Isaiah Baltzell. He became a 
diligent Bible student, reading and re-reading the sacred 
volume through by the light of the blazing pine knots 
in the great kitchen fireplace. At the age of sixteen he 
preached his first sermon. His first license to preach, 
dated April 8, 1861, was signed by Bishop Markwood. In 
the February following, 1862, he joined the Virginia Con- 
ference. In 1864 he was ordained by Bishops Glossbren- 
ner and Markwood. The War had broken out when he 
commenced his ministerial work, and he shared to the 
fullest extent the perils to which ministers were exposed 
in traveling over their large circuits. His journeys kept 
him constantly crossing the border, so that he was now 
within the Union and now within the Confederate lines. 
He procured passes from both sides as his duties required, 
and though frequently arrested by Confederate conscription 
officers, and sometimes held up by freebooters, he passed 
through all in safety. The Confederate Government ex- 
empted ministers from enforced military service, and when 
arrested by the officers he was uniformly released on 



THE TWENTIETH GENERAL CONFEBENCE—1889 389 

satisfying them that he was a minister. Through all 
this service during the War and afterward his labors 
were greatly blessed. The first three years were spent 
on one circuit, where he and his colleague gathered over 
six hundred souls into the Lord's garner. 

In 1869 he was a delegate to the General Conference 
at Lebanon, Pennsylvania, being the youngest member 
of the body. In 1873, at the General Conference in Day- 
ton, he was elected general missionary treasurer. He was 
then on the radical side of the exciting question which 
had four years previously been made an issue in one elec- 
tion, and was chosen in preference to Mr. McKee, who was 
a liberal. Four years of experience in mingling with min- 
isters and people broadly through the Church in the dis- 
charge of the duties of his office, led to material modification 
of his sentiments, and in 1877, at Westfield, he was elected 
editor of the Religious Telescope. Under his wise adminis- 
tration the paper was relieved of the intense radicalism 
which for the previous eight years had dominated its 
columns, and of which many who were classed as radicals 
had become weary. For twelve years he conducted the 
paper with great acceptability to the Church. The con- 
ference of 1881 chose him, in connection with Dr. H. A. 
Thompson, as a delegate to the Methodist Ecumenical 
Conference in London. From this visit he took occasion 
to extend his journey across the Continent to Syria, Pal- 
estine, and Egypt, the result of which was the production 
of the valuable volume, '' Journey ings in the Old World." 
In 1889, after these sixteen years of effective service, the 
General Conference laid upon him the yet higher re- 
sponsibility of a bishop in the Church. 

Bishop Hott is known throughout the denomination as 
an able preacher, writer, and presiding officer. In the latter 
capacity he has abundantly demonstrated his strength by 



390 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

his clear grasp and thorough apphcation of parHamentary 
law, as well as by his urbane dealing with members in 
the progress of business. In the councils of the bishops, 
as well as in the General and annual conferences, the 
soundness of his judgment is fully recognized. As a writer 
he is warm, earnest, and pleasing, expressing himself often 
with an attractive glow that appeals strongly to the heart. 
In the pulpit and in public addresses on the platform he 
has everywhere the warmest welcome. His style as a 
preacher may be said to be peculiarly his own, but it 
wins its way to the judgment and heart of every hearer. 
Many of his passages rise to the plane of true eloquence, 
and are uttered with thrilling power and effectiveness. 

His duties as a bishop call him widely to and fro — 
recently across the sea to the mission fields of Germany 
and Africa. His present home is supposed to be at Cedar 
Eapids, Iowa, but he rests chiefly, when rest is taken, 
with his wife, in the home of one or another of his three 
daughters, all of whom are married to ministers. 



CHAPTER XXII 

A PERIOD OF LITIGATION 

I. THE PUBLISHING HOUSE SUIT. 

As WAS anticipated when the seceders withdrew from 
the General Conference at York, Pennsylvania, on the 
fourth day of the session, they went out and organized 
themselves into a body which they claimed to be the 
General Conference of the Church, and further assumed 
to act in the name of and for the Church, and under 
this assumption elected persons to fill the various general 
offices and boards of the Church. In pursuance of these 
assumptions it was expected that they would also, in 
due time, lay claim to all property, of whatever kind, 
belonging to the Church. It was not long until this 
expectation began to be realized. And thus began, not 
long after the adjournment of the conference of 1889, in 
the civil courts, a contest which involved so much annoy- 
ance and trouble, and so great an outlay of time, money, 
labor, and anxiety, as to prove exceedingly harassing to 
the Church generally. This struggle continued until, after 
years of effort, the decision of the highest court in one 
State after another had overthrown the last hope of the 
seceders for success. 

The first formal claim for the possession of church 
property was made when, one day in July, 1889, Ex- 
Bishop Milton Wright, who claimed to be the publishing 
agent for the Church, appeared at the office of the United 
Brethren Publishing House, and served upon the pub- 



392 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

lisher, William J. Shuey, a written notice demanding 
possession of the House, with all its appurtenances, includ- 
ing real estate, machinery, stocks, accounts, the keys to 
the House and safes, and all property of whatever kind 
belonging to the House. The demand was refused, and 
immediately thereafter the board of trustees, of which 
body David L. Rike was president, filed a petition in the 
Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County, Ohio, for 
the quieting of the title in their favor. Halleck Floyd 
being president of the pretended board of trustees of the 
Publishing House, the case became known in the court 
records as D. L. Rihe et al, Trustees, v. Halleck Floyd et al. 
To the petition of D. L. Rike and others Halleck Floyd 
and others filed their answer. 

After several preliminary motions and postponements 
the defendants, in March, 1890, made application to the 
United States District Court at Cincinnati for removal from 
the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County on the 
ground of local prejudice. Judge Sage, of the United States 
District Court, overruled the application for removal. 

Finally the case came on for hearing, December 4, 1890, 
before Judge Henderson Elliott, of the Common Pleas 
Court of Montgomery County. After hearing and refusing 
two motions of the defendants, and listening to the plead- 
ings of both parties, the judge, by mutual consent and at 
the request of counsel for the defendants, entered a decree, 
pro forma, in favor of the plaintifis, with the understand- 
ing that the case be carried to the Circuit Court of the 
said County of Montgomery. 

The trial before the Circuit Court, to which appeal was 
taken by the radicals, began on June 17, 1891. The 
presiding judges were Charles C. Shearer, of Xenia, Ohio, 
Gilbert H. Stewart, of Columbus, and James M. Smith, of 
Lebanon, Ohio, the last named sitting in place of Judge 



A PEBIOD OF LITIGATION 393 

J. A. Shauck, who, as a trustee of the estabhshment, was 
one of the plaintiffs in the case. Counsel of high distinc- 
tion for ability was retained on both sides, the attorneys 
for the Church being Hon. Lewis B. Gunckel and Hon. 
John A. McMahon. Among the attorneys for the defend- 
ants was Judge William Lawrence, for whom special 
eminence as an ecclesiastical lawyer was claimed. Nine 
days were spent in the trial, seven in presenting docu- 
mentary and oral testimony, and two in argument. 
Among the witnesses for the plaintiffs were Bishop J. 
Weaver, Bishop E. B. Kephart, Prof. A. W. Drury, Prof. 
J. P. Landis, Rev. W. J. Shuey, Rev. D. Berger, Rev. 
William McKee, Rev. B. F. Booth, and Rev. G. M. 
Mathews ; for the radicals. Bishop Milton Wright, Rev. 
C. H. Kiracofe, Rev. Halleck Floyd, and others. A 
number of depositions were introduced — for the Church, 
those of Dr. Philip Schaff, of Union Theological Seminary, 
New York City, Dr. James Strong, of Drew Theological 
Seminary, and Bishop J. M. Walden, of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church ; for the seceders, those of Dr. Herrick 
Johnson, of Chicago, Dr. J. G. Carson, of Xenia, Ohio, 
Dr. Willis K. Beecher and Dr. Sprague, of Auburn, New 
York, and Dr. Lewis Davis. 

In this trial a wide field was covered, and every inch 
of ground was contested with distinguished ability. The 
importance of the case was fully comprehended not only 
from the standpoint of the large amount of property 
directly involved, but from the probable bearings of the 
decision in this case upon millions of dollars' worth of 
other property. The main point sought to be established 
by the radicals was that the Church, through its adoption 
of an amended Constitution and revised Confession of 
Faith, had ceased to be the Church of the United Brethren 
in Christ and had become another and different church — 



394 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

that the Confession had ceased to be Arminian and had 
become Calvinistic ; that the General Conference which 
elected the publishing agent and trustees was not the 
General Conference of the United Brethren Church, and 
that therefore the publishing agent and trustees now 
holding the property were not entitled to such possession ; 
and that they themselves, as elected by the small body of 
seceders who left their seats in the General Conference 
and organized for the transaction of General Conference 
business, were the rightful representatives of the Church, 
and as such entitled to hold and control the property. 

It would be a wearisome task to place in review before 
the reader the methods resorted to, the arguments used, 
and the sophistries employed to establish these claims. It 
will be sufficient to say that the findings of facts and the 
legal opinion and decree of the court were a complete 
overthrow of all that was claimed by the radicals. The 
very able rendering of the court was unanimously con- 
curred in by the three judges. 

The case was carried on appeal to the Supreme Court 
of Ohio. Four years elapsed before it was reached in the 
course of business before that high tribunal. The day for 
hearing was set for the 13th of June, 1895. An exhaust- 
ive examination was here made by a full bench, except- 
ing Judge Shauck, who had then become a member of 
that body, but did not sit in the case. This court regarded 
the reasonings and conclusions of the Circuit Court as being 
so thorough and satisfactory that it did not deem it neces- 
sary that a new finding of facts or opinion should be 
written. On June 27, 1895, it handed down its decision, 
in which it declared : " The case has been fully and 
exhaustively considered in the opinion of the Circuit Court, 
as announced by Shearer, J. . . . We fully affirm the 
reasoning of the court and the conclusions there rendered. 



A PERIOD OF LITIGATION 395 

Judgment affirmed." The court was unanimous in this 
decision. For some of the essential points in Judge 
Shearer's lengthy and very able rendering, the reader is 
referred to Appendix II. 

An incident of the Circuit Court, as illustrating the 
temper of the judges in the case, is well worth recording. 
When the long strain of the trial was at last relieved by 
the rendering of the court, there was naturally a feeling 
of pleasure on the part of those who were vindicated, and 
Mr. Shuey, in speaking with Judge Shearer, thanked him 
for the decision. The judge, with a quiet smile, but an air 
of unmistakable firmness, replied : " You need not thank 
me for it. If the facts had been the other way, I would 
have given it against you in cold blood." 

II. OTHER SUPREME COURT DECISIONS. 

In seven other States, namely, Indiana, Pennsylvania, 
Oregon, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, and California, suits 
have been carried up to the Supreme Court, and in all of 
these except the last named the decision of this final 
tribunal has been rendered. Five of these courts gave 
their judgment in favor of the Church ; one, that of 
Michigan, in favor of the radicals. In California a case 
on appeal is pending. 

The case before the Indiana Supreme Court came up 
on appeal from Wayne County in that State, in which the 
lower court had decided in favor of the Church, the con- 
tention being for the quieting of title to a church-house. 
The Supreme Court consists of five judges, one of whom 
did not sit in the case, having been consulted by one of 
the parties to the suit previous to his election to the 
supreme bench. The decision of the judges was unani- 
mous. It was handed down on November 6, 1891. 

The case in Pennsylvania was brought on appeal from 



396 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

the Common Pleas Court of Franklin County. The 
trustees of a church had brought suit to quiet their 
title to a church-house in Greencastle, in that county. 
The seceders were defeated in the lower court, and 
appealed to the court of last resort. The judges of this 
court are seven in number. They gave a unanimous 
rendering confirming the decree of the lower court in 
favor of the Church. The decision was rendered in 
July, 1893. 

In Oregon the contention was for the possession of the 
property known as Philomath College. The history of 
this case is somewhat remarkable. The Supreme Court, 
having once decided in favor of the radicals, was petitioned 
for a rehearing by the trustees, which was granted, a very 
unusual thing for a Supreme Court to do. The court 
consisted of three judges. One of these had rendered a 
most able opinion in our favor in the lower court, and 
did not sit on the case in the Supreme Court. One of the 
two remaining judges wrote an elaborate and very able 
opinion, giving the property to the Church. The second 
judge dissented, but wrote no opinion. The two being 
unable to agree, the decree of the lower court remained 
undisturbed, and the property was left in the possession of 
the Church. The decision was rendered in October, 1894. 

In Illinois a suit was brought by the seceders for the 
possession of a church in Livingston County in 1891. The 
case was contested with great ability in the Circuit Court 
of that State, the decision being given in favor of the 
Church, in 1892. It was appealed by the radicals to the 
Supreme Court. This court consisted of seven judges. 
The case was submitted to them in March, 1894. On 
January 15, 1895, the court handed down its decision, the 
seven judges agreeing. The decision confirmed the decree 
of the lower court, giving the property to the Church. 



A PERIOD OF LITIGATION 397 

In Missouri a suit was brought for the ejectment of a 
radical minister from the occupancy of a parsonage prop- 
erty. The case was heard in December, 1891. In Sep- 
tember, 1892, the judge decided in favor of the Church. 
The case was taken on appeal by the radicals to the 
Supreme Court. It was heard on January 16, 1895. On 
March 29, 1895, the four judges sitting in the case gave 
a unanimous decision, confirming that of the lower court. 

In Michigan the contest was for the possession of Salem 
Church, in Allegan County. The trial court decided the 
case in favor of the Church. The case was carried up 
on appeal. The court consisted of five judges. One of 
the number did not sit, having been previously inter- 
ested. Three of the judges decided the case in favor of"^ 
the radicals. One wrote an able dissenting opinion. The 
case was filed in December, 1893. In this State a lower 
court has since given possession of a church-house and 
parsonage to the Church, notwithstanding the decision of 
the higher court. The case has again been appealed to the 
Supreme Court, with a changed bench. It is hoped, with 
good reason, that the Supreme Court will correct its error. 

In the Dominion of Canada a decision has been rendered, 
in the Court of Appeal, of a very important character as 
affecting all the property of the Church in the Dominion. 
A case in a lower court was decided in favor of the 
radicals. It was carried on appeal to the higher court, 
the four judges sitting giving separate opinions, but a very 
thorough and unanimous rendering, reversing the decision 
below. In this case the radicals were represented by 
the Hon. Ex-Vice-Chancellor Blake, of Toronto, who is 
acknowledged to be without a superior as an advocate before 
a court. In the lower court he gained an easy victory ; 
in the higher court he met with necessary defeat, the facts 
and the law being on the other side. 



398 THE VNITED BBETHBEN IN CHRIST 

A case at the present writing is pending in the United 
States Circuit Court at Cincinnati. There seems httle 
Hkehhood that the judge before whom it is brought will 
differ widely from the consensus of seven of the high 
tribunals above mentioned. 

In all these cases it was felt that issues of the highest 
importance were involved, and no effort possible to human 
industry and skill was spared to win. The side of the 
Church was defended with great ability in nearly every 
suit, and the radicals sought everywhere the ablest counsel, 
available. During the tedious and wearisome conflicts 
the bishops of the Church and many of its ministers and 
laymen bore a portion of the burden. But it is due to 
say that throughout all the vexatious litigations no other 
one rendered the Church so eminent service as was given 
by William J. Shuey. As financial head of the Publishing 
House, he bore the chief strain of the litigation for its 
possession, and elsewhere, in most of the other suits, he 
rendered similar valuable assistance. Next to him in this 
defense of the Church and its interests stood the venerable 
Bishop Weaver, a tower of strength in every court. Others 
who were not so constantly in the work rendered invalu- 
able aid. But now that the troubles are about over, the 
whole Church has reason for profound gratitude to God^ 
who has led righteousness to triumph. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE TWENTY-FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE — 1893 

The General Conference of 1893, the latest of the series 
at the present writing, is of so recent date that a very 
brief reference to it seems most appropriate. The con- 
ference was held in the city of Dayton, Ohio, commencing 
May 11, and continuing through twelve days. A very 
large amount of business, much of it routine, was trans- 
acted. The various reports from the different departments 
of the Church indicated that encouraging progress had 
been made during the quadrennium. Discussion in the 
papers presented took a broad and instructive range, and 
some of them have a permanent value. 

I. LAY DELEGATES. 

Two very noteworthy features marked this conference. 
One of these was the appearance, for the first time in the 
history of the Church, of lay delegates on the floor of the 
conference. This was in accordance with the provision in 
the amended Constitution of the Church which declares that 
the "General Conference . . . shall consist of elders and 
laymen." This feature of the Constitution having become 
operative after the conference of 1889, delegates from the 
laity were chosen in the ratio determined by that con- 
ference. The number of ministerial and lay delegates was, 
respectively, one hundred and twenty-four and seventy- 
two. It is of special interest also to record the fact that 
among the lay delegates two were women. Women had 
always possessed the right to vote in elections for delegates 



400 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

to the General Conference, as well as for local church offi- 
cers, and had also been admitted to seats in the annual 
conferences. And now the right to sit as members in the 
General Conference was exercised unchallenged, notwith- 
standing the fact that the Book of Discipline contains no 
distinct provision in which they are named as being eligible. 
The returns of elections of delegates for the General Confer- 
ence of May, 1897, indicate that nine w^omen have been 
elected as delegates to that conference. The admission of 
w^omen to membership in this highest body of the Church 
is in harmony with the progressive spirit of the age, and 
ought to be regarded as most fitting in a church in whose 
best activities women are so largely engaged. 

II. TIME LIMIT REMOVED. 

A second feature which will make the conference one 
of special historical interest was the elimination, from the 
Book of Discipline, of the time limit as applying to the 
pastorate. On this point the Discipline had always been 
liberal, providing that by special approval of the annual 
conference ministers might be returned for a longer term 
of years than was fixed in the general limitations. By 
the action of this General Conference all limitation is 
swept away, except that appointments must still be made 
for a single year at a time. 

In the election for general superintendents, Bishops 
Castle, Kephart, and Hott were reelected, and J. S. Mills 
was added to the episcopal board. Bishop AVeaver, as 
previously noted, being elected bishop emeritus. 

III. PERSONAL NOTES. 

J". S. Mills, D.D., Ph.D. 

Bishop J. S. Mills, the latest accession to that company 
upon whom the General Conference bestows its highest 



THE TWENTY-FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE— 1893 401 

distinctions, was born in Washington County, Ohio, on 
February 28, 1848. His father was of the Society of 
Friends, but soon after marriage he, with his wife, joined 
the United Brethren Church. The bishop's early educa- 
tion was obtained in the neighborhood common schools, 
with two years in an academy. Later he spent four years 
in the Illinois Wesleyan University, from which he sub- 
sequently received the degrees of A.M. and Ph.D. on 
examination. He was converted at the age of eighteen, 
joined the Scioto Conference two years later, in 1868, and 
was ordained in 1871. When the Central Ohio Conference 
was formed, in 1878, he became a member of that body, 
and in 1890 he transferred his membership to the Iowa 
Conference. On entering the ministry he served on 
circuits, stations, and as presiding elder, his last pastoral 
charge being the Otterbein University church, to which 
he gave six years of service. From Otterbein he was 
called to Western College, which institution he served 
for six years, three years as a professor and three as its 
president. 

Bishop Mills is a man of strong mental endowments and 
of recognized culture. He is a close thinker, and possesses 
in fine degree the power of exact expression. In sermon 
or other address his speech is characterized by elegant 
finish, never redundant, nor yet too concise, the right word 
always in the right place. He leads a close student life so 
far as public duties permit, is fond of scientific and meta- 
physical inquiry, and is interested in the great social prob- 
lems of the day. He is a member of the American 
Academy of Political and Social Science, and an associate 
member of the Iowa Academy of Science. 

In the allotment of episcopal residences Bishop Mills 
was assigned to the Pacific Coast, so that his present home 
is in Eugene, Oregon. His field, however, like that of 

26 



402 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

the other bishops, is the entire Church. At the present 
writing he is making a visit to the foreign fields in Ger- 
many and Africa. The bishop is the youngest member 
of the Board of Bishops, is usually in excellent health 
and vigor, and large possibilities of future service lie 
before him. 



PART II 
DEPARTMENTS OF CHURCH WORK 



PART II 
DEPARTMENTS OF CHURCH WORK 

CHAPTER I 

THE UNITED BRETHREN PUBLISHING HOUSE 

It was a wise step when the General Conference, in 
1833, resolved to found for the Church a publishing house 
which should be under central and official control. It was 
an early period for an enterprise of this kind to be 
undertaken, only a few of the now great religious pub- 
lishing houses having then been organized. 

I. PRIVATE ENTERPRISE. 

Previous to 1834 all printing done for the Church was 
by private enterprise, and consisted chiefly of such pub- 
lications as met an immediate demand — principally Dis- 
ciplines and hymn-books. The first printed Discipline, 
that of 1815, was printed at Hagerstown, Maryland, in 
1816, by John F. Koch, in the German language. That 
of 1817, also in German, was printed by John Armbrust 
& Co., at Greensburg, Pennsylvania. In 1819 it was 
reprinted in German and English on opposite pages, by 
Gruber & May, at Hagerstown. The succeeding Disci- 
plines for each quadrennium up to and including 1833 
were printed in like manner by different persons in 
different cities. After 1837 all the Disciplines were printed 
by the Church publishing house. 

405 



406 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

The publication of hymn-books for the Church was 
accomplished in the same manner, by individual enter- 
prise. The first book of this kind was published by order 
of the Conference of 1807, held in Lancaster County, 
Pennsylvania. It was compiled by George A. Guething, 
and printed in Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1808. It 
contained two hundred hymns. The book was in the 
German language. The second was compiled by Henry 
Evinger and Thomas Winters, of the Miami Conference, 
also in German. It was published in 1815. The third, 
the first hymn-book in the English language, was compiled 
by Rev. James T. Stewart, also of the Miami Conference. 
It was printed in Cincinnati in 1826. A fourth, prepared 
by Jacob Antrim, of the Miami Conference, containing 
three hundred and thirty-two hymns, was printed in 1829 
by a firm in Dayton, Ohio. A revision of a German 
hymn-book, by Jacob Erb, authorized by the General 
Conference, followed. A sixth book, in English, by Wil- 
liam R. Rhinehart and Jacob Erb, under the authorization 
of the Virginia and Pennsylvania conferences, was printed 
in 1833. This passed afterward under the control of the 
General Conference, and continued in use until 1849, when 
it was displaced by a revised collection ordered by the 
General Conference of 1845. 

The field of periodical publication was first entered by 
the courageous but inexperienced Aaron Farmer, of the 
Miami Conference. In 1829, at Salem, Indiana, he sent 
forth the pioneer journal, Zion's Advocate, under special 
restrictions by the conference as to doctrinal teaching, 
"unprofitable controversy," and so on. There was slight 
need for this embargo on the liberty of journalism, for 
the publication, in character quite satisfactory to its read- 
ers, soon perished for lack of funds. In 1833 the Mountain 
Messenger made its appearance at Hagerstown, Maryland, 



THE UNITED BRETHREN PUBLISHING HOUSE 407 

with William R. Rhinehart as proprietor and editor. It 
was saved from probable like disaster by being merged 
into the official publication undertaken soon afterward. 

II. THE PUBLISHING HOUSE ORGANIZED. 

The appearance of these early publications served to 
emphasize the need of something better for the Church, a 
paper which should be under the direction of the General 
Conference, and receive the patronage of the entire Church. 
In the General Conference of 1833 the subject received 
appropriate attention, among the foremost advocates of 
such an enterprise being Rev. John Russel, afterward 
Bishop Russel. The conference being held in Pickaway 
County, Ohio, near the town of Circleville, that place was 
chosen for its location, and Mr. Russel, Jonathan Dres- 
bach, and George Dresbach were elected trustees for the 
enterprise, with instructions to solicit donations, secure 
subscriptions, and proceed to publish the proposed paper. 
It was ordered that the paper be "devoted to religious, 
moral, and literary intelligence." 

The trustees proceeded cautiously in the discharge of 
their duties, and it was not until the 31st of December, 
1834, more than a year and a half from the time it was 
ordered, that the first number of the new paper appeared. 
It was issued under the title which it has since retained 
unchanged — The Religious Telescope. Mr. Rhinehart, of the 
Mountain Messenger, became its first editor and publisher, 
the subscription list of the Messenger being transferred 
to the Telescope. The paper consisted of four pages, fifteen 
by twenty-two inches in size. For some time it was 
published semimonthly, the price per year being $1.50. 
The subscription list for the paper rose slowly, reaching 
for some years but little beyond a thousand names, and 
these mostly obtained on the credit system. Mr. Rhine- 



408 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

hart was an ardent reformer, and his radical utterances 
through the paper, while assisting greatly in preparing 
the way of advanced sentiment in the Church, especially 
on the slavery and temperance questions, did not in those 
days tend to add to the popularity of the paper, or to 
augment its bank account. The enterprise was begun 
with liabilities amounting to sixteen hundred dollars, and 
soon the debt ran up to six thousand dollars, and 
the House must have failed had it not been sus- 
tained by the courage and ample credit of the trustees. 
In 1839 William Hanby, afterward bishop, became editor 
and publisher, having direction for six years. Then fol- 
lowed David Edwards, also afterward bishop, as editor. 
Under the more prudent direction of these men the paper 
grew in acceptability. The subscription list advanced, 
and by 1849 the liabilities were cleared away, and four 
years later the net assets were placed at thirteen thousand 
dollars. These, however, included moneys due on sub- 
scriptions and other assets which were never collected. 

III. THE REMOVAL TO DAYTON. 

The need of a better location for a house that should 
meet the growing wants of the Church had for some 
years been felt. The proposition for a change was con- 
sidered by the General Conference of 1853, and it was 
determined to remove the House to Dayton, Ohio. A lot 
on the northeast corner of Main and Fourth streets, 
fronting fifty-nine and one-half feet on Main and one 
hundred and fifty-two feet on Fourth, was purchased for 
eleven thousand dollars. On this ground was situated a 
two-story brick residence, and within a few months after 
the adjournment of the General Conference the establish- 
ment was located in this house as its temporary home. 
The removal was accomplished under the direction of 



THE UNITED BRETHREN PUBLISHING HOUSE 409 

Rev. Solomon Vonnieda, who had just been elected as 
publishing agent. 

In 1854 a substantial four-story brick building, forty 
by ninety feet in extent, was erected upon this lot, with 
ample equipment of machinery for the requirements of 
that time. The cost of the building with its machinery 
was fifteen thousand dollars. A book-store was established 
in connection with the House. Two new periodicals were 
started in the quadrennium from 1853 to 1857, — the Unity 
Magazine and the Children's Friend, — both edited by David 
Edwards. Thirteen new books were published, and there 
were other abundant signs of activity. John Lawrence, 
who had been assistant editor of the Religious Telescope, 
was now its editor. The removal of the House to a new 
location, and the new energy and life apparent in all its 
departments, implied also increased financial outlays, and 
a burdensome debt was soon in process of accumulation. 

IV. MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT. 

1. Finances. 

The reader has seen that at the organization in 1834 
the House was practically without capital, and had lia- 
bilities amounting to about $1,600 ; that these liabilities 
afterward advanced to nearly four times that sum, but 
in 1849 had been fully paid off. After the removal to 
Dayton, in 1853, with the investment in real estate, 
erection of building, purchase of machinery and stock, 
with other added expenses, and no adequate returns, 
new liabilities were created, which in 1857 amounted to 
over $53,000. Against this were placed assets in property 
and accounts, none of which could be immediately used to 
diminish the debts. Eight years later, in 1865, the liabili- 
ties still amounted to above $52,000, though valuable por- 



410 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHBIST 

tions of the ground owned by the House had been sold to 
obtain rehef. At this time the assets were estimated at 
something above $63,000, leaving but a narrow margin 
between the credit and debtor sides of the accounts. Not 
less than $25,000 had been lost to the House through 
the credit system. 

It was at this crisis that Rev. W. J. Shuey, who had 
been appointed assistant agent in June, 1864, was elected, 
by the General Conference of May, 1865, as the financial 
head of the House. Mr. Shuey began at once a careful 
study of its financial condition, with a view of ascer- 
taining by what methods at least a gradual reduction 
of this consuming debt might be attained. He was not 
long in coming to the conclusion that unless at least a 
partial relief could be reached the House was doomed to 
a collapse at no distant day. For the purpose of some 
immediate relief he devised and laid before the General 
Conference of 1865 the Publication Fund plan. The plan 
was approved by the conference, and an appeal was made 
to the Church for contributions to the fund. The Church 
responded to this call to the extent of about $18,000, 
thus furnishing a very material relief to the strained finan- 
cial condition. He began, also, after entering upon the 
full control of the House, that close and careful super- 
vision of its business in all its details by which the 
current of its affairs was turned, and that upward trend 
was begun which has never turned backward. Under this 
wise management, in consultation from time to time with 
its board of trustees, and with the generous support of 
the ministers and people throughout the Church, the 
House has steadily gained in its resources until a high 
position among the foremost of denominational publish- 
ing houses has been attained. 

Through all the subsequent years, of either general 



THE UNITED BRETHREN PUBLISHING HOUSE 411 

financial prosperity or depression, the House has seldom 
passed a year without adding to the credit side of the 
ledger. The general assets in the year 1896 had reached 
the sum of $365,630.50, while the net assets were 
$315,665.08. The real estate, including the additional 
grounds purchased and the new buildings erected, has 
advanced from almost nothing in 1834 to over $100,000 
in 1896. The cash sales of books have amounted to 
nearly $1,600,000, and the cash receipts from periodicals 
have been more than $1,700,000. The aggregate receipts 
from the business since the founding have been over 
$4,250,000. In benevolences, such as carrying non-pay- 
ing publications, paying General Conference expenses, and 
dividends to the annual conferences, the House has dis- 
pensed over $57,000. To this sum about $30,000 must 
be added as expense in the recent litigations. In its 
financial standing in the business world the House holds 
its place in the first rank. 

^. Buildings and Equipment 

To the building erected in 1853, ninety feet in length, 
with a frontage of forty feet, extensions have since been 
added, until it is now two hundred feet long, the rear 
portion being ninety-nine and one-half feet in depth. 
The building as now constructed aff'ords a combined floor 
space of more than one acre. It is thoroughly equipped 
with the machinery requisite to a high-class publishing 
house. It is heated throughout with steam, lighted with 
electricity produced by its own dynamos, and a large part 
of its machinery is operated by electric power. 

3. Departments. 

The departments of the House at present are the 
publisher's office, book department, editorial rooms, com- 



412 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

posing, job printing, electrotyping, power, press, binding, 
and mailing departments. All of these have been enlarged 
from time to time, as required by the development of 
business. The establishment has long had a wide reputa- 
tion for high-class work in all its branches, and the book- 
store connected with the House is one of the best equipped 
in any city west of New York. 

V. THE PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS. 

In the founding of the Publishing House the object 
proposed was to supply the people of the Church with 
wholesome literature of a religious and general character. 
In no department has the growth of the House been 
more strikingly illustrated than in its periodical publi- 
cations. 

1. The Religious Telescope. 

This paper, the earliest publication issued by the House, 
still holds, in the popular regard, the chief place among 
its now numerous periodicals. From the small semi- 
monthly folio of 1834 it has advanced through various 
stages of folio of larger size, octavo, or eight-page, and 
sixteen-page, up to its present elegant thirty-two-page 
form. The broad mission of this paper to the Church 
cannot be indicated in a brief description. It has through- 
out its career stood out bravely on all questions of reform, 
and has sought in every way to aid in building up 
all other interests of the Church. Its early issues were 
printed on a small hand-press. It is now printed from a 
rapid web perfecting press, capable of issuing five thousand 
copies per hour, printed on both sides, pasted, cut, and 
folded, ready for mailing. 

The first editor was Rev. William R. Rhinehart, whose 
official connection with the paper continued until 1839. 




The United Brethren Publishing House at Circleville. 
(Basement of the CiRCLEViLiiE Church.) 



THE UNITED BRETHREN PUBLISHING HOUSE 413 

He was succeeded by Rev. William Hanby ; and he, in 
1845, by Rev. David Edwards. In 1849 Mr. Hanby again 
became editor, but in 1852 resigned this position to become 
publishing agent. In the latter year Rev. John Lawrence, 
who had been assistant editor since 1850, became editor. 
Since 1852 the following persons have been editors and 
assistant or associate editors respectively : Editors — Rev. 
John Lawrence, Rev. D. Berger, Rev. Milton Wright, 
Rev. Wilham 0. Tobey, A.M., James W. Hott, D.D., 
I. L. Kephart, D.D. Assistant and Associate Editors — 
Rev. Wilham 0. Tobey, A.M., Marion R. Drury, D.D. 

2. The Sunday-School Periodicals. 

The Sunday-school publications have grown to occupy a 
large place in the business of the House. Of the six English 
Sunday-school periodicals now published, the Children's 
Friend is the oldest, having been begun in 1854, with 
Bishop David Edwards as editor. The Missionary Vis- 
itor was established in 1865, with Rev. D. K. Flickinger, 
corresponding secretary of the Missionary Society, as editor. 
In the summer of 1895 this paper was transferred to the 
Sunday-school department, its name being changed to the 
Children's Visitor. These have always been semimonthly 
papers, and together now furnish reading for every Sabbath 
in the year. They are small folios, and are profusely illus- 
trated. The four periodicals comprising the lesson series 
— namely. Our Bible Teacher, Our Bible-Lesson Quarterly, 
Our Intermediate Bible-Lesson Quarterly, and Lessons for the 
Little Ones — had their origin in the International Sunday- 
School Lesson movement, beginning with 1873. Lesson 
Leaves for the Sunday School appeared on the 1st of January 
of that year, under the editorial management of Rev. D. 
Berger, and in 1882 developed into the Intermediate Quar- 
terly. Our Bible Teacher was first published in April, 1873, 



414 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

under the same editorial care. The first number of Our 
Bible-Lesson Quarterly was issued in January, 1879, and 
Lessons for the Little Ones has been pubHshed since April 2, 
1876. All of these publications are familiar to the mem- 
bership of the Church. Their combined circulation in 
July, 1896, was over three hundred and seventy thousand. 
The following have been editors of the Sabbath-school 
literature : Bishop David Edwards, Rev. Alexander Owen, 
Rev. Solomon Vonnieda, Rev. D. Berger, Dr. J. W. Etter. 
The associate editors have been Dr. J. W. Etter and Dr. 
H. A. Thompson. 

S. The German Periodicals. 

The first German paper issued for the Church was 
undertaken as a private enterprise by John Russel, in 
1840. It was called Die Geschdftige Martha ( The Busy 
Martha), and was printed in Baltimore. In 1841 the Gen- 
eral Conference assumed control of the paper, elected Jacob 
Erb as editor, and appointed three special trustees to take 
it in charge. Its career closed in one year afterward for 
want of support. In 1846 the publication was resumed, in 
Circleville, Ohio, with the name changed to Der Deutsche 
Teleskop ( The German Telescope), and Nehemiah Altman as 
editor. Three years later it resumed its original name, the 
Busy Martha. In 1851 the name was once more changed, 
this time becoming Der Frbhliche Botschafter ( The Joyful 
Messenger). This name is retained to the present. The 
editors of this paper have been the following : Rev. John 
Russel, Rev. Jacob Erb, Rev. N. Altman, Rev. David Strick- 
ler, Rev. Henry Staub, Rev. Julius Degmeier, Rev. Solomon 
Vonnieda, Rev. Ezekiel Light, Rev. William Mittendorf. 
Rev. Edward Lorenz is now in editorial charge. 

The Sunday-school periodicals of the German depart- 
ment of the House deserve special mention. The first 



THE UNITED BRETHREN PUBLISHING HOUSE 415 

of these is Der Jugend Pilger (The Youth^s Pilgrim), estab- 
lished in 1870. In size and general character it is like 
the Children's Friend. For four years it was issued as a 
monthly. Since then it has been a semimonthly. In 1890 
was begun the publication of a Sunday-school quarterly, 
called Sonntagschul-Ledionen. It contains twenty-four 
pages, with cover. These periodicals have always been 
under the same editorial care as Der Frohliche Botschafter. 
All of these papers are edited with much ability, and 
all deserve much larger circulation than is possible with 
the limited German membership of the Church. Rela- 
tively the German portion of the Church gives a far better 
support to its publications than the English membership 
does, and for this the Germans are worthy of all praise. 
Nevertheless, these periodicals have always been issued 
at a pecuniary loss to the House, the aggregate deficiency 
from the beginning being upwards of thirty-eight thousand 
dollars. But they are clearly a necessity to the Church, 
and their publication must be continued. 

4-. The Watchword. 

With the organization and rapid growth of the Young 
People's Christian Union there soon began to be felt a 
need for a periodical devoted especially to that interest. 
Numerous requests came to the General Conference of 
May, 1893, for such a publication, and the conference 
ordered that a paper be published, and elected Rev. 
H. F. Shupe as its editor. The first number of the Young 
People's Watchword, now called the Watchword, appeared on 
September 2 of that year. It is in handsome eight-page 
form, issued weekly, and well illustrated. It is a bright, 
cheery, and helpful paper, and is filling admirably an 
important mission to the Church. It is furnished at the 
price of one dollar a year. 



416 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

5. Magazine Literature. 

About the middle of the century much attention was 
given in the Church to the subject of personal holiness. 
It was for the promotion of this object that the JJnity 
Magazine, a monthly magazine, at first called JJnity with 
God, was started, by order of the General Conference of 
1853. The first number was issued in November of that 
year. The subscription list gave slight promise of success, 
and the scope of the magazine was broadened. But it 
lived only a little over five years, its career closing with 
January, 1859. Its first editor was Bishop David Edwards. 
He was succeeded in 1857 by Eev. Alexander Owen. Each 
gave to the magazine fine ability and an earnest Christian 
tone. No attempt was ever made to revive this monthly. 

In 1889 the General Conference decided to enter again 
the field of magazine literature, this time, however, aiming 
at a publication of a higher character, to be issued quar- 
terly. Accordingly, in January, 1890, the first issue of 
the Quarterly Review of the United Brethren in Christ, with 
J. W. Etter, D.D., as its editor, made its appearance. In 
1891 Dr. Etter was elected a professor in Union Biblical 
Seminary, and the work on the Review was shared with 
him by the other professors in the seminary. The Gen- 
eral Conference of 1893 placed the magazine in the care 
of the professors, but with the last issue of that year its 
publication was discontinued, by order of the trustees 
of the House, because of insufiicient support. After- 
ward an organization of ministers was formed, called 
''The Review Publishing Association," for the purpose of 
reviving the publication. Dr. G. M. Mathews became its 
managing editor, giving his service gratuitously, and thus 
it has continued to live. The Review from the beginning 
has been under excellent management, and has uniformly 
maintained a high character. 



THE UNITED BRETHREN PUBLISHING HOUSE 417 

6. Missionary Publications. 

Two other publications, both of most excellent character, 
and both devoted to the missionary work, are issued from 
the Publishing House, though not by the House itself. 
The first of these is the Woman^s Evangel, a monthly 
published by the Woman's Missionary Association, and 
edited by its officers. The first number appeared in Jan- 
uary, 1882. Mrs. L. R. Keister was editor from the begin- 
ning until 1893, and Mrs. L. K. Miller associate editor 
from 1888 to 1893. Upon the resignation of Mrs. Keister 
in the latter year, Mrs. Miller succeeded as editor. 

The second of these publications is the Search Light, also 
a monthly, published by the Home, Frontier, and Foreign 
Missionary Society, with the general secretary, William M. 
Bell, D.D., as editor, and the treasurer, William McKee, D.D., 
as associate. This paper is very attractive in appearance. 

Both of these periodicals are conducted with discrimi- 
nating zeal and judgment. 

VI. BOOK PUBLICATIONS. 

An extensive list of books, theological, historical, bio- 
graphical, and miscellaneous in character, many of them 
of a high order, have been published by the House. With 
these are included teachers' Bibles, of which very many 
thousands, in conjunction with two great publishing houses 
of another denomination, have been issued. 

The first English hymn-book issued by the Publishing 
House under the order of the General Conference was com- 
piled by H. G. Spayth, in 1849. This was superseded by 
a greatly improved collection ordered by the conference 
of 1857, which remained in use until 1873. The later 
hymn-books published, both for congregational and Sun- 
day-school use, have taken high rank. In 1873 the 

27 



418 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

General Conference ordered the publication of a hymn- 
book with notes, and a committee was appointed to super- 
vise the work. The preparation of it was committed to 
Rev. William H. Lanthurn, who, at the time and until his 
death in 1884, was at the head of the book department. 
The result was the excellent book entitled " Hymns for the 
Sanctuary," one of the very best books of its class. Later 
a demand arose for a smaller book with notes, with more 
immediate adaptation to revival and the general social 
services of the Church. The preparation of this work was 
committed to Rev. Edmund S. Lorenz, A.M., so well known 
to the Church as a music writer and publisher. And thus 
the "Otterbein Hymnal," which has proved so justly pop- 
ular, was given to the Church. Sunday-school song-books of 
superior character have also from time to time been issued. 
For a general view of the book publications of the House, 
the reader is referred to the " Manual of the United Brethren 
Publishing House, Historical and Descriptive." 

VII. THE PUBLISHING AGENTS. 

In the earlier years of the House the editors of the 
periodicals were also the publishing agents. In 1845 
Nehemiah Altman was elected publisher. He held the 
office for seven years, during one of which, from 1846 to 
1847, he was also German editor. Since 1853 the publishing 
agents have been as follows : 1853 to 1854, Rev. Solomon 
Vonnieda ; a few months in 1854, Rev. Solomon Vonnieda 
and Henry Kumler, Jun. ; 1855 to 1861, Rev. Solomon 
Vonnieda and Thomas N. Sowers ; 1861 to 1864, Thomas 
N. Sowers and Jacob B. King ; 1864 to 1865, Thomas K 
Sowers and Rev. William J. Shuey ; a few weeks in 1865, 
Rev. William J. Shuey and Thomas N. Sowers ; 1865 to 
1866, Revs. William J. Shuey and William McKee ; 1866 
to the present, Rev. William J. Shuey. 



THE UNITED BRETHREN PUBLISHING HOUSE 419 

For nearly thirty-three years, or more than half the 
lifetime of the Publishing House, Mr. Shuey has stood at 
its head as general superintendent and financial mana- 
ger. He was born in the town of Miamisburg, Ohio, ten 
miles from Dayton, on February 9, 1827. He was con- 
verted and became a member of the United Brethren 
Church in 1843. He joined the Miami Conference in 
1848, and was ordained by Bishop Erb in 1851, entering 
in the latter year upon the duties of pastor. He served 
in this relation, and in that of presiding elder, until he 
entered the Publishing House, with the exception of mak- 
ing a trip to Africa, in company with Eevs. D. C. Kumler 
and D. K. Flickinger, for the purpose of locating a mission. 
The idea of opening a mission somewhere in Africa was 
first proposed by him to the Board of Missions, at the 
session of 1854, and it was especially by his advocacy that 
the proposition was adopted by the board. He was also 
the first to suggest to the General Conference, at the session 
of 1869, the establishing of a central theological seminary 
for the Church, as will appear in these pages farther on. 

Mr. Shuey first entered the House, as has been before 
stated, in June, 1864, as assistant publishing agent. The 
manner in which he addressed himself to the situation 
as then existing commended him to the favor of the 
General Conference of 1865, and he was elected publishing 
agent. The wisdom of this choice has been abundantly 
demonstrated through the years which have followed, and 
never more so than through the long and wearisome 
period of litigation, in which, while there were many to 
bear a portion of the burden, its principal weight, by the 
necessities of the situation, fell upon him. 

In devoting himself to the management of the Publish- 
ing House, his life has necessarily been drawn away from 
the more direct work of the ministry, and, while he has 



420 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

rendered the Church an invaluable service in this par- 
ticular field, he has always regretted the necessity which 
separated him from his more immediate chosen life work. 
His strength in the pulpit, his wdsdom as a counselor in 
the General and annual conferences, and his thorough 
interest in all that pertains to the growth and success 
of the Church in all her departments of work, are every- 
where recognized. 

VIII. SOME OF THE EDITORS. 

Of a number of the men who have served in the rela- 
tion of editors in the House mention has been made 
elsewhere, as Rhinehart, Hanby, Edwards, Wright, Hott, 
Russel, Erb, and Altman. Of others a brief mention must 
be made here. 

One of the most popular of the long line was Rev. John 
Lawrence. Becoming assistant editor of the Religious Tele- 
scope in 1850 and editor in 1852, he was regularly elected 
by the General Conference in 1853, and resigned early in 
1864, having served in the office about fourteen years. He 
became chaplain of a regiment in the War of the Rebelhon, 
and remained afterward in Nashville, Tennessee, where he 
entered into the practice of law, continuing in that pro- 
fession until his death, in 1889. He wrote with great 
fluency, and gave his readers many bright and breezy 
articles, but disappointed many by his failure to bring the 
paper to a high literary standard, and often by deficiency 
in well-matured thought. He wrote much against secret 
societies and slavery, and published a small volume on 
each of these subjects. He wTote also a history of the 
United Brethren Church, a work in which, as to style 
of writing, he appears at his best. 

Rev. William Otterbein Tobey, A.M., was for eight years 
editorially connected with the Religious Telescope, four 



THE UNITED BRETHREN PUBLISHING HOUSE 421 

years as joint editor with Milton Wright, and four years 
as assistant with Dr. J. W. Hott. He brought to his work 
fine abiHties as a writer, but sympathized fully with the 
ultra-radicalism which controlled the Telescope during the 
first four years of his connection with it. 

Dr. Marion R. Drury, born in 1849, a graduate of Western 
College and Union Biblical Seminary, became assistant editor 
of the Religious Telescope in 1881, serving eight years in 
that relation. In 1889 he was regularly elected by the 
General Conference as associate editor, a relation which he 
has continued to occupy to the present. He has proved 
himself as possessing true editorial instincts, is judicious, 
painstaking, and thorough. He apprehends quickly the 
salient points of any subject or situation, and rapidly pre- 
sents to his readers the best things. The fact that he has 
almost completed four quadrennial terms of service, a longer 
period than any other person has ever served on the Tele- 
scope, is ample proof of his adaptation to editorial work. 

Dr. Isaiah L. Kephart, born in 1832, a student in Otter- 
bein University, professor of natural science in Western 
College, Iowa, in 1871, professor of mental and moral 
science in San Joaquin Valley College, California, in 1883, 
president of Westfield College in 1885-89, was elected 
editor of the Religious Telescope in 1889. Dr. Kephart 
entered easily upon the duties of an editor. He has suc- 
ceeded in giving to the paper the high character in thought 
and type of expression which has commended it so strongly 
to its readers. During the turbulent years which followed 
the radical secession he conducted the paper with wisdom 
and in a manner to be greatly helpful to the Church. 
He is of cheerful temperament, always hopeful, trusting 
strongly in God's sovereignty over the affairs of men, 
and is a safe leader of the hosts of the Church through 
the medium through which he speaks to them each week. 



422 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

The early editors of the German Hterature were Riissel, 
Erb, Altman, David Strickler, and Solomon Vonnieda. 
Mr. Vonnieda was editor for seven years, from 1859 to 
1866. Then succeeded Rev. Ezekiel Light, who edited 
the German literature from 1866 to 1869, and again 
from 1885 to 1889. He was again elected by the General 
Conference in 1893, but resigned immediately afterward 
to assume the chaplaincy of the National Military Home 
at Dayton. He proved himself a strong thinker and 
able writer. Dr. Light preferred the position he now 
occupies as being less confining, while equally laborious. 
He resides with his family in the pleasant residence 
provided for the chaplain by the Home government. 

Rev. William Mittendorf was elected editor of the 
German periodicals in 1869, and continued to 1885, a 
period of sixteen years. He was again elected in 1889, 
serving to 1893, when, upon Dr. Light's resignation, he 
was immediately reelected by the board of trustees, and 
continued until his death, in April, 1895, serving in all 
nearly twenty-two years as editor, the longest service, with 
a single exception, of all the editors in the history of 
the House. Mr. Mittendorf was born in Hanover, Ger- 
many, January 30, 1830. He was in high standing in 
the Ohio German Conference, and was elected a delegate 
to every General Conference from 1869 to 1893. During 
his editorial career he translated the essential portions of 
Lawrence's Church History into the German language, 
and assisted in compiling the German hymn-book now 
in use in the Church. He was an earnest and laborious 
worker, and, like his successor, was plentifully provided 
with work to do, having the editorial care of Der Frohliche 
Botschafter (weekly), the Jugend Pilger (semimonthly), and 
the Sunday-school lesson quarterly. 

Rev. Edward Lorenz, on the death of Mr. Mittendorf, 



THE UNITED BRETHREN PUBLISHING HOUSE 423 

in the spring of 1895, was elected by the board of trustees 
as editor of the German publications, and entered at once 
upon the duties of the office. He sustains admirably the 
literary and religious tone of these periodicals. 

In the spring of 1864, John Lawrence having resigned, 
D. Berger was appointed editor of the Religious Telescope, 
and was elected by the General Conference of 1865. In 
1869 he was chosen editor of the the Sunday-school lit- 
erature, and continued in this relation until 1893. In 
the latter year Dr. J. W. Etter was elected, but died in 
March, 1895. D. Berger was then again chosen, continuing 
to the present. He has occupied the editorial chair for 
twenty-six years, during twelve of which he was a mem- 
ber of the International Lesson Committee. In 1893 
Dr. H. A. Thompson was elected associate editor, and 
continues to the present time. 

IX. BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 

The following trustees were elected by the General 
Conference of 1893: D. L. Rike, George Miller, D.D., 
John Dodds, D. W. Crider, Prof. R. J. White, Rev. W. 0. 
Fries, Rev. A. C. Wilmore, E. R. Smith, M.D., and G. M. 
Mathews, D.D. After the death of D. L. Rike, in 1895, 
Prof. A. W. Drury was elected to fill the vacancy. Dr. 
G. M. Mathews is president of the board. 

The House, as a whole, is a great hive of activity, 
employing in its various departments more than a hun- 
dred people, sending out annually a vast amount of 
wholesome literature, and is esteemed as one of the most 
solid of the business establishments of the flourishing city 
in which it is located. 



CHAPTER II 

THE HOME, FRONTIER, AND FOREIGN MISSIONARY 
SOCIETY AND ITS WORK 

I. THE HOME AND FRONTIER FIELD. 

The United Brethren Church, as we have seen in these 
pages, had its origin in the latter half of the eighteenth 
century in a series of revival meetings conducted by 
Otterbein, Boehm, and others who became associated with 
them in their work, the occasion being the low state of 
spirituality which prevailed particularly in the churches 
with which they were connected. Their preaching was 
plain, spiritual, and practical, and they dwelt with great 
emphasis on the sinfulness and lost condition of men, 
and the necessity for repentance, faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ as a present Saviour, and a conscious witness of 
the Holy Spirit to their regeneration and acceptance with 
God. Hence the Church soon became widely known for 
its insistence on these doctrines, as well as for its frequent 
and powerful revivals. With such preaching, such revivals, 
and a converted and spiritual membership, it was natural 
that an earnest missionary spirit should soon spring up. 
Every newly-converted soul was anxious to bring other 
souls into the same blessed experience. Many of those 
whose hearts were drawn out in earnest sympathy for 
others, as they poured forth the story of their own joyful 
experience, soon developed into preachers. With little 
pretense of scholastic culture, but with hearts grasping 
the great essentials of salvation, they spoke first to their 
neighbors on the great subject of their eternal welfare, 

424 



THE GENERAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY 425 

and then made visits to other places, sometimes at long 
distances, and rehearsed the same story. Thus they 
became true missionaries, sometimes sent out by councils 
of brethren, as were Barnabas and Saul at the first, but 
often going by their own motion, as Paul did subsequently 
on his great missionary journeys, or on some urgent call 
from a distant point, coming like the call from Macedonia 
to the great apostle, "Come over and help us." Journeys 
of hundreds of miles, and extending through weeks and 
even months, were thus made by these enthusiastic and 
devoted servants of God, whose only compensation was 
the souls they brought into the kingdom of Jesus. 

But all this work, carried forward with such commend- 
able zeal, and such immediate blessed results, was for many 
years without organization or system. The route which 
a preacher traveled over he might not follow up again 
for an interval of years, nor were others appointed to follow 
definitely in his track. The people who heard his w^ord 
gladly, who gave their hearts to Christ, and often were 
gathered into small organized bands, or societies, might 
not see a minister again for long periods, or a minister 
of another denomination might come into the neighbor- 
hood, and gather them, with others, into another fold. 
These ministers in general were entirely unpaid in a 
pecuniary way, while the itinerant missionaries often gave 
but part of a year to the work. 

This irregular and unsystematized method of doing 
missionary work was largely maintained up to the middle 
of the present century. The conferences indeed took the 
matter in hand, marked out mission fields within their 
bounds, or in regions adjacent to their territory, appointed 
home missionaries to these fields, and collected funds on 
the various charges for their partial support. And, in 
justice, it must be said that, with all the disadvantages 



426 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

under which they labored, they accomplished a magnifi- 
cent work. The Church had extended its work far to the 
westward from the original territory which it occupied in 
its earlier years in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. 
The great States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, and 
portions of Michigan, were netted over with conferences 
and flourishing societies before the general Missionary 
Society of the Church was organized. But the experi- 
ence of the fathers of the first half of the century, the 
grave difficulties and disadvantages under which they 
carried forward their work, taught them the need of 
some form of effective organization, some centralized 
agency through which the work could be more efficiently 
directed, and through whose appeal to the Church a 
larger liberality could be awakened, or through which 
wise and definite direction could be given to the liberality 
which had already been quickened for ready response to 
the Lord's call. It was a great step forward, therefore, 
when the Home, Frontier, and Foreign Missionary Society 
was organized by the General Conference of May, 1853. 
It should be noted here that previous to this, while 
the annual conferences, whose work was now conducted 
in the use of the English language, were pushing their 
work far beyond their own boundaries, the Germans were 
also actively engaged in missionary enterprises. They 
organized a number of congregations, chiefly among 
European Germans, in the cities of Ohio, Indiana, and 
Kentucky, and were vigorously prosecuting their work. 
While thus engaged they received a limited support from 
the conferences, but most of them performed their labor 
at heavy personal sacrifice. When the General Confer- 
ence of 1853 assembled, this work was in a healthy and 
growing condition, and was properly recognized and 
organized as the Ohio German Conference. 



THE GENERAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY 427 

The Sandusky Conference, which was begun in 1829 by 
ministers from the Muskingum Conference, had grown to 
large proportions by the time of the meeting of the General 
Conference of 1853. A noble body of ministers, earnest, 
progressive, looking well to the future of the Church, 
were at work in this conference. They had succeeded 
in building a conference which, in numbers, intelligence, 
enterprise, and wealth, stood among the foremost in the 
Church. Among this band of ministers was the Rev. J. 
C. Bright, a man whose heart God touched with the fire 
of a true missionary spirit. Under his inspiration the 
conference took an active part in those measures which 
led up to the organization of the general Missionary 
Society. At the annual session of 1852 a committee, with 
Mr. Bright as its chairman, made in substance the fol- 
lowing report on missions, the report being unanimously 
adopted by the conference : 

1. That the time has fully come when the United Brethren 
Church should unite her whole strength in a missionary society, 
which shall include not only the home, but also the frontier and 
foreign, fields within the sphere of its labors. 

2. That the Sandusky Conference organize itself into a branch 
missionary society, with the prayer that the General Conference 
may form a general society, of which each annual conference may 
be a branch. 

3. That the payment of one dollar shall constitute a person a 
member of the society for one year, ten dollars a life member, and 
fifty dollars a life director. 

4. That our brethren be entreated to exercise the most prayerful 
thought and careful inquiry into the wants of the nominally Chris- 
tian, and especially the heathen, world, that their views may be 
enlarged in regard to the magnitude of the work devolving upon 
the Christian church, in fulfilling the commission given by our 
Saviour on the mount just before his ascension. 

It should be observed here that the Home, Frontier, and 
Foreign Missionary Society is intended to be, as it also is, the 
aggregate missionary working force of the whole Church, 



428 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

each annual conference being an integral part or branch 
of the parent society. The reader is referred to the con- 
stitution of the society, found in the Church Discipline, 
for an explicit statement of the plans and methods by 
which its work is carried forward. This constitution, 
which, it is understood, was originally drawn by the 
hand of Mr. Bright, was subjected to but very slight 
alteration from the time of its adoption by the General 
Conference of 1853 until the conference of 1881, a period 
of twenty-eight years. And if the reader has followed 
closely the form of the Sandusky Conference resolutions 
he will not wonder that when the General Conference 
came to elect its first corresponding secretary the choice 
fell upon John C. Bright. He was a man of marked 
abilities, of great zeal, and thoroughly qualified for the 
duties of the position, then new to the Church, and he 
soon infused into the hearts of hundreds of ministers and 
laymen the spirit which so strongly actuated his own 
heart in this department of work. Eev. John Kemp was 
elected the first general treasurer of the society. The 
following were then elected to constitute, with the sec- 
retary and treasurer, a board of management : Bishop 
J. J. Glossbrenner, senior bishop, president ; Bishops 
Henry Kumler, Jun., David Edwards, and Lewis Davis, 
vice-presidents ; Kevs. William Longstreet, Daniel Shuck, 
and D. B. Crouse, and Messrs. T. N. Sowers and John 
Dodds. Thus organized, the Board of Missions was now 
ready to begin active and aggressive work. 

At this time, in 1853, there were in the Church four- 
teen annual conferences, namely, the Pennsylvania, 
East Pennsylvania, Virginia, Allegheny, Scioto, Miami, 
Muskingum, Sandusky, Illinois, AVabash, Indiana, White 
River, St. Joseph, and Iowa. The church membership 
scarcely aggregated a full fifty thousand. Of ministers 



THE GENERAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY 429 

there were about four hundred in the itinerant ranks and 
about three hundred local. Four conferences, however, as 
we have seen, were organized by the General Conference 
of 1853, namely, the Ohio German, the Michigan, the 
Auglaize, and the Des Moines, the latter by separation 
from the Iowa. The ministers and membership in these 
new conferences were included in the statistical estimates 
just given. 

About this time the Church entered upon a new period 
of activity. The educational spirit, as elsewhere seen in 
these pages, was asserting itself in the founding of col- 
leges, and the missionary spirit was reaching out into 
new fields, and many new outposts of the Church were 
being established. At the very time when the General 
Conference of 1853 was in session, a colony of United 
Brethren from Indiana had entered upon its long and 
wearisome journey to Oregon. This new territory had 
then but recently been opened to immigration, and these 
pioneers started for this distant land of promise not only 
to seek homes for themselves and their families, but also 
to establish in that new country the Church which they 
loved. The colonists were under the leadership of Revs. 
T. J. Connor and J. Kenoyer, men who gave themselves 
a cheerful offering for this service. The route overland, 
most of the way through territories where the faces of 
white men were then but seldom seen, was attended with 
much difficulty and hardship. But the journey over the 
hot and dreary plains and through the dangerous moun- 
tain passes was at last accomplished, and the courageous 
pioneers in due time laid the foundations for the Oregon 
Conference, and the beginnings of the work in the extreme 
northwestern section of the United States. The minis- 
ters immediately began preaching to their neighbors, and 
made visits for this purpose to neighboring districts as 



430 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

often as their straitened circumstances would permit. The 
divine blessing rested upon their work, regular appoint- 
ments were established and classes formed, the ministerial 
force was enlarged, and two years later, in 1855, the 
Oregon Conference was organized. In the absence of any 
regular bishop, Mr. Connor presided as bishop pro tempore. 
By this time they had formed societies in Yam Hill, Polk, 
Marion, Benton, Linn, Lane, and Umpqua counties, and 
had made frequent prospecting tours to regions beyond. 

We have seen elsewhere in these pages ^ that as early 
as 1825 Rev. Jacob Erb, afterward Bishop Erb, made a 
visit to Canada. This was in company with J. Christian 
Smith, the two visiting and preaching at various points, 
including also northwestern New York. This prospecting 
tour was undertaken on their own responsibility. Two 
years later, in 1827, Mr. Erb was appointed to travel 
a mission, in the same regions, called the "New York 
Mission." He was then a young man, having joined the 
conference just four years previously. But he undertook 
the work with true zeal, traveling often long distances on 
foot. The Master, who said, "Lo, I am with you alway," 
put his blessing upon the labors of the young missionary, 
and many converts were numbered among those who heard 
his words. The conference of which Mr. Erb was a 
member was the original conference of the Church, no 
division of the work having yet been made in the East. 
Occasional subsequent visits were made by Mr. Erb to 
this field, but the work received no regular attention until 
1853, and many of those whom he had gathered together 
found their way into other communions. In the year 
1853 Bishop Erb visited Canada again, and was soon 
afterward followed by Israel Sloane, of the Scioto Con- 
ference, who was sent by the Missionary Board. Mr. 

ip. 273; see also Lawrence's History, Vol. II., pp. 226, 227. 



THE GENERAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY 431 

Sloane's work proved very successful, and three years 
later had so far grown that Bishop Glossbrenner organized 
the Canada, now Ontario, Conference, with six itinerant 
ministers, and something over one hundred and fifty 
members. 

The impulse given to the missionary work by the organ- 
ization of the society in 1853 was felt in many directions, 
among them that of southwestern Missouri. This region 
was visited by Bishop Henry Kumler, Jun., and Rev. 
Josiah Terrell in that year. They preached the word in 
many localities, and organized a number of societies, form- 
ing what was then known as the Southwest District. In 
1854 the work had so far grown that Bishop Edwards 
organized it into a mission conference. Annual sessions 
were held until 1859, when the excesses of border ruffian- 
ism had become so formidable that the work was permitted 
to decline, and no further sessions were held until after 
the close of the War. The strong antislavery principles 
of the Church made it perilous for our ministers and 
people in that part of Missouri when the determination 
to carry slavery into Kansas had become, among the pro- 
slavery classes, a violent and murderous frenzy. 

About the same time the Missionary Board began to 
direct its operations also into Kansas, that fertile country 
lying west of Missouri, into which, in 1854, emigration 
was beginning to pour its tide of new settlers. The coun- 
try had then just been opened up for occupancy, and its 
inviting fields presented a strong attraction to people who 
were seeking for new homes in the West. The settlers 
were mostly from the free States of the North, and their 
purpose was to build up a strong, free commonwealth to 
add to the great sisterhood of States. Others were from 
the South, and were equally determined that Kansas 
should become a slave State. At that period there 



432 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

was on the part of the supporters of slavery througliout 
the South an intense determination to press the institu- 
tion into every possible available foot of territory. The 
famous fugitive-slave law, whose passage by Congress 
they had secured, and which for a series of years dis- 
honored our national statutes, degraded every citizen of 
the North to the position of a slave-catcher, if his service 
should be called for, with fines and imprisonment if he 
declined to obey. In national politics the extension of 
slavery into new Territories, or its restriction to the States 
in which it then existed, and its final complete abolition, 
was the subject of incessant and bitter contention. It 
was the agitation of these questions which led to the 
great War of the Rebellion and the overthrow of the 
institution. But before this colossal conflict was fully 
precipitated there was for some years a preliminary bor- 
der war between the settlers from the Northern States 
and those from the South, the latter being supported by 
armed raiders from Missouri, who sought by intimida- 
tion and frequent assassination to force slavery into this 
then new Territory. 

It was under these circumstances that the Rev. W. A. 
Cardwell, of the White River Conference, Indiana, appeared 
as the first missionary of the United Brethren Church, 
establishing his home near Lecompton. Here also the 
first class was formed and the first church built. He was 
soon reinforced by the arrival of other missionaries sent 
out by the board. These were Samuel S. Snyder, of the 
Allegheny Conference, who settled near Lawrence ; not 
long after, J. S. Gingerich, also of the Allegheny, and 
next Josiah Terrell, of the White River Conference. In 
1855, Mr. Bright, referring to the troubles which prevailed, 
wrote : " The political sky in Kansas is cloudy at present, 
but freedom must in the end prevail. If Kansas should 



THE GENERAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY 433 

ever be a slave State, we ought not to abandon it. The 
gospel of Christ is light, and wherever the dark cloud 
of slavery is spread, there the light should be diffused. 
Through sore troubles and persecutions our brethren con- 
tinue to prosecute their work, frequently mobbed, waylaid, 
shot at, threatened, troubled on every side, but not in 
despair," Bravely they held their ground, their work 
enlarging in their hands. In October, 1857, Bishop 
Edwards, by previous appointment, visited them, and 
on the 30th of the month organized the Kansas Con- 
ference. Other helpers had by this time joined, and the 
names of nine itinerants were enrolled, and nearly two 
hundred lay members were reported. 

The work under the care of the Missionary Board in 
southwestern Missouri was for a time suspended, on ac- 
count of the perils attending its prosecution, but that in 
the northwestern part of the State was pushed forward 
with added vigor, by ministers from the Des Moines Con- 
ference, Iowa. The General Conference of 1857 accord- 
ingly instructed Bishop Edwards to organize a conference 
in that part of the State, and he held the initial session 
of the Missouri Conference in the fall of 1858. Three 
hundred and fifty-eight members were reported, and the 
names of nine ministers enrolled. A second session was 
held in the spring of 1859, when the number of members 
had increased to eight hundred and nine. It was the 
beginning of a good work, which has increased in solidity 
ever since. 

In Wisconsin the Rev. G. G. Nickey and others had 
begun work, and had succeeded in organizing a number 
of congregations. Regular quarterly conferences were held, 
and a vigorous and hopeful church life was springing 
up. The work having been brought to the attention of 
the General Conference of 1857, that body directed Bishop 

28 



434 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Lewis Davis to organize it into a mission conference, and 
that the Missionary Board make proper provisions for 
its further prosecution. The Wisconsin Conference was 
accordingly organized in 1858, with twenty-one preachers 
and five hundred and fifty- four members. 

The General Conference of 1857 also exiended special 
recognition to the Kentucky Conference, which had been 
organized in 1850, by directing that it be placed under 
the care of the Missionary Board, and at the same time 
also the board took under its care the Parkersburg 
Conference, the General Conference having separated its 
territory from the Virginia Conference. Parkersburg was 
organized as a separate conference in 1857. And to these 
is yet to be added the Minnesota Conference, organized 
by Bishop Davis in the fall of 1857. 

It will thus be seen that in the first four years following 
the organization of the Home, Frontier, and Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society not less than nine annual conferences were 
added, or ready to be added, to the Church, namely, the 
Oregon, Canada, Southern Missouri, Kansas, Missouri, Min- 
nesota, Wisconsin, Parkersburg, and Kentucky. All these 
were recognized as mission conferences, and received sup- 
port in greater or less degree from the funds of the society. 

II. THE MISSION IN AFRICA. 

The mission work thus far spoken of was limited to 
the United States and Territories and the Dominion of 
Canada. Previous to the organization of the general 
Missionary Board, in 1853, no work in any foreign coun- 
try was undertaken by the Church. A most important 
forward step was therefore soon to be taken whereby the 
Church was to be placed in line with other churches in 
the work of giving the gospel of Jesus to the heathen 
world. The first annual meeting of the Board of Mis- 



THE GENERAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY 435 

sions was therefore to be an initial assembling in more 
than one sense. The meeting was held on Jinie 1, 1854, 
at Westerville, Ohio. The members of the board, new 
to the responsibility which the General Conference had 
laid upon them, assembled with anxious prayer for divine 
direction during their session. And never since the day 
when at Antioch the Spirit said to the church, "Separate 
me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have 
called them," was the leading of the Spirit more mani- 
festly present than when the unanimous impulse was 
awakened in the hearts of these men, and the resolution 
fixed upon, to begin somewhere among the heathen the 
work of a Christian mission. It was a very brief reso- 
lution in which, after full deliberation, they gave expres- 
sion to this high purpose : 

Resolved, That we send one or more missionaries to Africa as 
soon as possible. 



Scarcely more than a dozen words were sufl&cient, but, 
like that divine utterance at the beginning, "Let there 
be light ! " they were laden with a great meaning, and 
were the first dawning of that blessed illumination which 
now shines with so bright a radiance in those lands to 
which the missionaries were sent. The question as to the 
country in which the Church should begin a mission 
was fully canvassed, and Africa was chosen as being the 
most deeply sunk in the darkness of heathenism and the 
most neglected by the Christian world. 

Among those whose hearts God had touched with the 
missionary impulse in advance of this meeting of the board 
was the Rev. William J. Shuey, of the Miami Conference, 
then a young man in the earlier years of his ministry, an 
able preacher and full of spiritual fervor, a man whose 
name was destined to become familiar to the Church 
through a long series of years in connection with another 



436 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

of her most important departments of work. He was 
chosen by the board to become the first missionary of 
the Church to Africa. He was charged with the special 
duty of selecting and locating a mission, rather than that 
of remaining as a permanent laborer in the field. The 
board instructed its executive committee to choose other 
missionaries to accompany Mr. Shuey in the work. Not 
long afterward the committee appointed Rev. D. C. Kum- 
ler, M.D., and Eev. D. K. FHckinger, both of the Miami 
Conference, as Mr. Shuey's associates. Just forty -two years 
ago, in the month of January, 1855, these first foreign 
missionaries of the Church set sail from New York in a 
small vessel for their distant destination. After a voyage 
of thirty-four days, on February 26 they arrived at Free- 
town, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 

The missionaries remained a few days at Freetown for 
rest and observation. They soon found that they were 
indeed in a heathen land, though civilization and Chris- 
tianization had here begun to do their work. They found 
abundant work here waiting to be done, but not wishing 
to build on another's foundation, or to reap where others 
had sown, they determined to seek a field where the gos- 
pel of Jesus had never been heard of, to bring light where 
men sat in the utter darkness of heathenism. In order 
to acquaint themselves with the general situation, so as 
to be able to select wisely, they then started on a voyage 
southward along the coast for Good Hope Station, on 
Sherbro Island, about one hundred and twenty miles from 
Freetown. At this point the American Missionary Asso- 
ciation (Congregational) had been for some 3^ears operating 
a mission. They were here received with the utmost cor- 
diality and kindness, and the counsels of the missionaries 
stationed here further proved of great value to them. 
From this point they made numerous expeditions, both 



THE GENERAL MISSION ABY SOCIETY 437 

along the coast and up some of the rivers, with the view 
of finding a site that should offer the greatest advantages 
as a starting-point for a mission, and in time a head- 
quarters from which to work a larger field. They felt 
that the choice of location must not be made hastily, 
since so much depended on the wisdom and care with 
which it should be made. Among the many places visited 
was Mokelli, a town situated on the Jong River, about 
sixty miles from the coast, and having a population of 
about five or six hundred. Contiguous to it were other 
towns, making within a small circuit a population of two 
thousand or more. The climate and healthfulness, with 
all other conditions, seemed to mark this as the most 
favorable spot they had found, and, taking all things 
into account, they decided to locate the mission at this 
place, and commence work as soon as possible. The 
next step to take was to secure land for a building and 
other uses of a mission, and for this purpose it was 
important to get a written title duly signed by the head- 
man, or chief, of the tribe. The chief, or king, was seen, 
and the terms of a bargain were agreed upon, and a 
properly executed title was promised. But African chiefs 
are proverbially slow in a matter of this kind, and before 
all the proceedings were concluded the missionaries left 
for Freetown. It was understood, however, that Mr. 
Flickinger would return to Mokelli to complete the nego- 
tiations. The matter of the location being, as was believed, 
settled, Mr. Shuey felt that he had accomplished the service 
w4th which he was charged, and Dr. Kumler having be- 
come a victim to the dreaded African fever, it was deemed 
advisable that they two should return to America, leaving 
Mr. Flickinger to prosecute further the work for which 
the way had been so far prepared. 

After their departure Mr. Flickinger returned to Good 



438 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Hope Station, where, soon after, in the month of July, he 
was attacked by the African fever, and greatly disabled 
for a long period. After partial recovery he preached 
often to the native congregation at Good Hope, and also 
made frequent tours to various outlying points, preaching 
to the natives the gospel of Christ, and also acquainting 
himself more perfectly with the aspects of different places. 
And now the tardiness of the wily Mokelli chief in signing 
a deed of conveyance proved that a serious mistake had 
been made. Mr. Flickinger, learning subsequently that a 
considerable portion of the year the river Jong was not 
navigable, and that access to the town from the coast was 
difficult and necessarily dangerous, and having made a visit 
to Shaingay and noted the advantages which it presented, 
determined upon a change of location for the mission. 
The wisdom of this determination has since become very 
manifest, since Shaingay presents, with convenience of 
access, as healthful a position as may be found anywhere 
along the coast. After much delay, indeed not until after 
Mr. Flickinger's return to America, and his second visit 
to Africa, was a title to this situation secured. This point 
has since become the entrance way to all our missionary 
operations in Africa — the Antioch of the Church in 
reaching the heathen fields beyond. 

On his second trip, entered upon early in Januar}^ 1857, 
Mr. Flickinger was accompanied by William Barton Witt, 
M.D., of Cincinnati, and Eev. J. K. Billheimer, a young 
man of the Virginia Conference. Dr. Witt was an able 
and consecrated physician, and Mr. Billheimer was a man 
of fervent spirit, who gave himself without reserve to the 
work. The appointment of these men gave great satisfac- 
tion to the Church at home. Dr. Witt's stay in Africa 
was unavoidably abridged, his return to America after a 
year and a half of service being necessitated by broken 



THE GENERAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY 439 

health in consequence of repeated attacks of the fateful 
African fever. Mr. Billheimer remained to give first two 
years and afterward several additional years of devoted 
labor to the work. Mr. Flickinger soon returned to 
America, and was elected by the General Conference 
of May, 1857, to the office of corresponding secretary of 
the Missionary Society, Mr. Bright's health having so far 
failed as to make further service for him impossible. 

After an absence of about nine months Mr. Billheimer 
was again on the field, now to complete the mission 
building, the erection of which he had previously begun. 
Eev. J. A. Williams, a native convert from Freetown, in 
whose charge he had left the mission during his return 
to America, assisted him greatly in this work. And now, 
the house being ready for use, with two rooms for living 
and a larger room for chapel and school uses, Mr. Bill- 
heimer entered again upon the work with new inspira- 
tion and hope. A few years later another visit to America 
became imperative for the recuperation of broken health. 
When he started a third time for his chosen field, in 
October, 1862, he took with him a companion and 
sharer in his toils, having married Miss Amanda L. 
Hanby, a daughter of Ex-Bishop Hanby. Mrs. Billheimer 
possessed recognized fitness for missionary work, and was 
duly appointed to the work by the Missionary Board. 

Meanw^hile, the work had begun to bear fruit among the 
native heathen. With the erection of the mission-house 
interested audiences were gathered into its chapel. Among 
these some listened with appreciation to the gospel message. 
Among the early converts was Lucy, a daughter of Chief 
Caulker. The king, though he had given a title for the 
ground on which the mission-house was erected, was utterly 
out of sympathy with the objects of the mission, and 
indeed did all he could to hinder its work. He and his 



440 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

wife bitterly opposed Lucy in becoming a Christian. She, 
however, was resolute in her purpose, and remained faithful 
to the religion she espoused. Some years later, in 1871, 
the king himself laid down his opposition, and died an 
avowed and sincere Christian. 

In 1860 the Board of Missions sought again to strengthen 
the hands of Mr. Billheimer by sending out the Rev. 
C. 0. Wilson. He arrived at Freetown in November. He 
remained only a few months, when he was stricken down 
with the fever while on a business trip to Freetown. On 
his partial recovery his physician insisted upon his imme- 
diate return to America as the only hope of preserving 
his life. He obeyed the order, and reluctantly returned. 
Then, lest complaint be made of the useless expenditure 
of money by the board, he paid out of his own purse all 
the expenses incurred. 

Mr. Billheimer's third visit to Africa was not to continue 
for more than about a year and a half. After toiling hope- 
fully for a while both he and his wife were disabled by 
the fever, which has destroyed the lives of so many mis- 
sionaries, but of which so few of those sent out by the 
United Brethren Church have died. After a long period 
of utter prostration there seemed to be nothing left to do 
except to return to America, Mr. Billheimer, especially, 
feeling that his work in Africa was done. They arrived 
at home in May, 1864. 

Other laborers, as time passed, were raised up. Among 
these were Rev. 0. Hadley, of the St. Joseph Conference, 
and his wife. They set sail for Africa in October, 1866. 
After two and a half years of faithful service they returned 
home in the spring of 1869. Mr. Hadley was in delicate 
health before going to the mission, and died soon after 
their return, at their home near Lafayette, Indiana. 

Fourteen years had now passed since the first mission- 



THE GENERAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY 441 

aries sent out by the board had landed in Africa. They 
were years of interest, of anxiety, of high hopes, and much 
disappointment. A number of missionaries had been sent 
out, followed by the earnest prayers of the Church, and 
now in the spring of 1869 not one of the number was 
left on the field, the mission being again committed to 
that faithful native Christian minister, Rev. J. A. Wil- 
liams. At this time many in the Church despaired of 
the final success of the mission, and some in high places 
began to entertain the thought of leaving it to other 
hands. It was in May of that year that the General 
Conference assembled at Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and it 
is to be recorded that, as expressing the loss of hope for 
the mission, a resolution was actually introduced in that 
body proposing its discontinuance. The resolution was 
anxiously discussed, and, to the honor of the conference 
be it said, it was voted down almost unanimously. 

But now a brighter day was at hand. The Lord honored 
the faith which triumphed in the day of darkness. In 
the city of Dayton, Ohio, in the Third United Brethren 
Church (colored), was a humble layman, intelligent, 
possessing sound judgment, a sincere Christian, a porter 
in a carpet store, Mr. Joseph Gomer, of pure African 
descent. The Lord placed the seal of his Spirit upon this 
man, and called him, with his excellent wife, to this work 
among their kinsmen after the flesh. They responded to 
the call, were duly consecrated to the service, and after 
the preparation of a suitable outfit they started for the 
great work to which God so manifestly called them. They 
sailed from New York in December, 1870. Their advent 
to the mission marked the beginning of a new era. Mr. 
and Mrs. Gomer soon found the way to the hearts of the 
people. The work began to enlarge under their hands. 
Preaching places multiplied, and native helpers arose from 



442 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

among the converts. A long period of service lay before 
them, and before Mr. Gomer's death converts were num- 
bered by thousands, and an organized annual conference 
of preachers was holding its yearly sessions. Mr. Gomer 
made his last visit to America in 1889, attending the 
General Conference at York, Pennsylvania. He returned 
to Africa, dying on the field in September, 1892, at the 
age of about sixty-five years. Mr. Gomer acquired wide 
influence among the native African tribes, frequently act- 
ing as umpire in their differences, and sometimes even 
settling wars between opposing chiefs. Mrs. Gomer died 
in December, 1896, at Dayton, Ohio. 

In the year 1883 a proposition from the American Mis- 
sionary Association to transfer to the care of our board the 
Avery and Good Hope mission stations for five years was 
received and considered by our board. The proposition in- 
cluded the annual payment of five thousand dollars to our 
board for the service to be rendered. It also carried with it 
the pledge of ten thousand dollars, given by a generous 
friend in England, to be expended in the building or 
purchase of a small steamer for the use of our mission in 
Africa. The proposition was accepted by our board, and 
for the period named these stations were operated by our 
board. The steamer also was built and sent to Africa. The 
latter proved rather a costly experiment. In the absence of 
skilled engineers and mechanics, to run the boat or make re- 
pairs when needed, the boat was used at great disadvantage, 
and after a while abandoned as a mission boat. On Jan- 
uary 1, 1889, the annuity ceased, but the Avery and Good 
Hope stations have been left under the care of our board. 

In 1883 Revs. J. M. Lesher and W. S. Sage and their 
wives were added by the board to the missionary force in 
Africa. These appointments were made partly on account 
of the increased responsibility of the board by having 



THE GENERAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY 443 

accepted the proposition of the American Board to supply 
the stations just spoken of. They reached Shaingay on 
the 6th of October of that year, and rendered valuable 
service to the mission during their stay of nearly three 
years. A portion of this time marked a very rapid 
advance in gaining converts from heathenism. In 1885 
the church membership of the mission numbered 1,526. 
In 1886 this number had increased to 2,629. 

Among the most useful servants of the mission work 
was Tom Tucker, one of the first converts under Mr. 
Billheimer, reclaimed from heathenism at the same time 
with Lucy Caulker. He became not only efficient in 
business matters, but also a useful preacher. Finally, 
while he was serving as pastor of one of the stations, the 
Master's call came, and this good man went to his reward. 
Among his last words were these : " I am ready to die 
and go to reign with my Saviour. I feel that God is with 
me all the time." His death occurred September 13, 1885. 

In the year 1886 the results of the mission work were 
partially summed up in the corresponding secretary's 
annual report to the board at its meeting in May. There 
were nine native preachers, four of whom had received 
regular ordination. Added to these were fifty-three lay 
workers, making a total native force of sixty-two. Two 
hundred and fifty-seven towns were on the list of the 
places statedly visited. The natives paid for the year then 
closed two hundred and forty-six dollars for the support 
of the work. The lay membership, we have just seen, 
was 2,629. 

Other workers have given various periods of service to 
the mission in Africa. Among the most efficient of these 
is Rev. L. 0. Burtner, who was appointed superintendent 
of the mission in May, 1892. His wife, a daughter of 
Dr. E. Light, chaplain of the National Soldiers' Home 



444 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

at Dayton, Ohio, was appointed to the mission with him. 
Mr. Burtner saw early the importance of teaching the native 
converts self-reHance and self-dependence, and resolved 
that as far as lay in his power he would enforce this as a 
duty. The general policy hitherto had been to supply to 
too great an extent the needs of the mission by help from 
America. He found it a slow and difficult task to enforce 
this principle, remarking in his latest report to the board : 

"It was apparent to me from the beginning of my 
oversight of the missions that a change of policy was 
necessary in order to secure greater progress. The rule 
was that those employed on the mission depended on it 
for almost everything. I at once sought to instill the idea 
of self-support in missions, and directed my efforts at first 
along the line of church erection. It required one year 
for the people to be assured that I would not build and 
keep in repair their native chapels. It took another year 
for them to learn that they could do it themselves, and 
a third year to go to work and do it. Last year we wit- 
nessed the completion of four native chapels, and this 
year one of stone foundation, hard-wood frame, and iron 
roof is being built, and will be ready by January next. 
We also require the people at all out-stations to clothe 
and feed their children and supply them with school- 
books. In short, our present policy is not to do any- 
thing for the people which they can and ought to do for 
themselves. Self-reliance greatly increases their desire and 
capacity to do for themselves." 

Better words than these could not be spoken in regard 
to the policy which ought to be pursued. Perhaps the 
most serious fault of earlier administrations of the work 
in Africa was that of doing too much for the converts in 
material things, instead of teaching them how to do for 
themselves, and insisting upon it that they must do it. 



THE GENERAL MISSIONABY SOCIETY 445 

At the present time the membership under the care 
of the general Board of Missions, together with that of 
the missions of the Woman's Missionary Association, as 
included in the African conference, is about six thousand 
souls, with seventeen itinerant preachers. In the missions 
of the parent board there are seven schools, ranging in 
attendance of pupils from twenty to one hundred and 
fifty, or about four hundred pupils in all. In this the 
Rufus Clark and Wife Training School is not included. 
The superintendency of the missions is at this time in- 
trusted to Rev. J. R. King, Mr. Burtner and his wife 
having returned to America to recruit failing health. 

The Training School. 

Among the most useful aids for the prosecution of the 
mission work in Africa is the Rufus Clark and Wife 
Theological Training School, established at Shaingay, 
through the munificence of Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Clark, 
of Denver, Colorado. There had long been a serious 
need for a school of a higher grade for the training of 
native preachers and teachers. In a limited way this 
work was undertaken in America. But it was plainly 
impracticable, on account of expense, as well as for other 
reasons, to bring to this country for suitable education a 
sufficient number of men to meet the requirements of 
the work. The gift of the sum of five thousand dollars 
by Mr. and Mrs. Clark, in 1886, was most opportune. 
A building of stone, sixty-six feet in length by thirty-one 
in width, and two stories high, was in due time erected, 
and the school was opened on February 21, 1887, with 
eight students, three of whom were in the department 
of theology. Five years later sixteen students were en- 
rolled in the training department, with a large contingent 
in the common branches of study. It is a fact of special 



446 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

interest that a large part of the stone used in this build- 
ing, including the corner-stone, came from the old aban- 
doned slave pens of John Newton, on Plantain Island, 
three miles distant. Mr. Newton, it will be remembered^ 
was once a noted slave-trader, and after his conversion 
became a distinguished minister of the gospel. All the 
stone for the building was generously donated by Chief 
Neal Caulker, an ardent friend of the mission. The first 
principal of the school was Rev. D. F. Wilberforce, M.D., a 
native-born African, who was educated in Dayton, Ohio, by 
the Board of Missions. Mr. Wilberforce having resigned in 
1893, Rev. A. T. Howard was made principal in 1894. An 
excellent school at Bonthe, under the care of the board, 
numbers about one hundred and twenty-five pupils. 

A Home of Rest. 

The long ocean voyage to the home land for mission- 
aries requiring temporary cessation from labor has been a 
serious obstacle to taking needed rest in time. This difii- 
culty is happily in process of removal. Two years ago 
Bishop Hott, on returning from an episcopal visit to Africa, 
urged the importance of providing for 'the missionaries a 
home of rest on the mountain range overlooking Free- 
town and the Atlantic Ocean. It was proposed to build a 
house costing from twenty -two hundred to twenty-five hun- 
dred dollars. The proposition at once met with favor, 
and the general board and the woman's board uniting in 
the enterprise, the raising of funds w^as soon accomplished. 
The building is now nearing completion, the stone for its 
construction being obtained on the mountain. Mount 
Leicester is sufiiciently elevated to be above the malarial 
range, and the atmosphere is thoroughly healthful and 
stimulating. The beauty and healthfulness of the spot has 
attracted the attention of other mission boards, and several 



THE GENERAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY 447 

such homes are already erected there. The work is under 
the superintendence of J. R. King of the general board, 
and L. A. McGrew of the woman's board. The advantages 
of having such a home near at hand, to which the fever- 
stricken and worn laborers may retire for a while for rest 
and recuperation, are manifest, and this place will doubtless 
prove to our missionaries a blessing of inestimable value. 

III. THE MISSION IN GERMANY. 

In the spring of 1869, when so many despaired of the 
future of the mission work in Africa, and even the General 
Conference entertained for discussion a proposition to 
abandon the field, a new light suddenly shone forth. 
The eclipse of faith was ended, and, instead of abandoning 
the work among the benighted heathen, a proposition 
was made, before the new board then chosen, to organize 
a mission in Germany. The German delegates to the 
General Conference were especially earnest in urging that 
missionaries be sent to the Fatherland, who should bring 
to its people the living spirit of a true evangelicism. The 
proposition was favorably entertained, and Rev. C. BischofF, 
of Zanesville, Ohio, was appointed the first United Brethren 
missionary to Germany. Mr. Bischofi* made early prepara- 
tions for a departure for his field. He began work, and 
during the first year of his service he gathered about one 
hundred members into his fold. This mission has been 
productive of most gratifying results. 

IV. THE MISSION IN JAPAN. 

The latest work undertaken by the Board of Missions 
is the founding of a mission in Japan. At the meeting 
of the board in May, 1895, the question of establishing a 
mission in some new foreign field was under consideration. 
China and Japan were proposed as ofi'ering inviting fields. 



448 THE UXITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Upon voting, the result was practically unanimous for 
Japan. While the question was thus considered and 
decided, the Lord was providentially preparing the work- 
men who should he the first to enter the new field. One 
of these was George K. Irie, who had been for several 
years in America, and was then pursuing post-graduate 
studies at Lebanon Valley College. ]\Ir. Irie is a native- 
born Japanese, possessing superior intelligence, a winning 
address, and fine social standing in Japan. His grade 
upon examination at the close of the college year entitled 
Mm to the degree of doctor of philosophy, which was 
awarded him. At the session of the Miami Conference 
in Dayton, in September following, 1895, he was, upon 
due examination in Christian doctrine, admitted to mem- 
bership, and licensed to preach the gospel of Christ. Dr. 
Irie was appointed by the board to the charge of open- 
ing a mission in Japan. With Dr. Irie during his stay in 
Dayton was Mr. U. Yonayama, also a converted Japanese, 
and a young man of large promise. He was authorized to 
assist in the work of the proposed mission. These young 
men left America full of faith in the gospel of Jesus as 
the means of salvation to their people. Upon reaching 
their native land the Lord soon placed before them an open 
door. They found many willing to hear their message, 
and the work has proceeded most encouragingly. 

But the Lord also soon raised up others to joim them 
in their work. Among these may be mentioned Rev. S. 
Doi, now actively at work in Tokio ; Rev. M. Okamoto, for 
a short time pastor of the First United Brethren Church in 
Tokio ; and five or more others, of whom some are .student 
preachers — young men in the schools, but beginning to 
preach the gospel of Christ. ^L\ Okamoto had an inter- 
esting American history. The well-known missionary 
journal, T}it Gospel in All Lands, says of him that several 



THE GENERAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY 449 

years ago he was converted in the httle Japanese mission 
in Oakland, CaHfornia. He was then in training for a 
business career, but the Spirit of God called him to 
another sphere. In a few months he was found preaching 
the gospel in Victoria, British Columbia. Here he learned 
that at Port Simpson, six hundred miles to the north, on 
the borders of Alaska, there was a colony of Japanese 
for whom nobody cared. He took shipping at the open- 
ing of winter for this point, preached to them the gospel 
of Christ, and won scores to the Christian faith. Eeturning, 
he resumed his work at Victoria, preaching also at Union, 
Eraser River, and Vancouver, forming at each place a 
mission church. He toiled through these years in great 
privation, being without a salary, and receiving onl}^ occa- 
sional means of support. Pulmonary trouble drove him 
south to a milder climate, and later, his life being despaired 
of, friends in San Francisco sent him back to Japan. For 
a time his health improved, and he was able to do hard 
work. Dr. Irie, who knew him in America, in conjunction 
with his fellow-laborers appointed him pastor of the First 
Church in Tokio. After a short period of faithful service 
his health declined again, and on the 30th of November, 
1896, he passed on to receive his crown. 

The first missionaries appointed by our board to Japan 
arrived in that country on November 10, 1895. A little 
time was required to arrange for the work, and they date 
the real beginning with the opening of 1896. Their suc- 
cess has been quite remarkable. The following from a 
letter from Dr. Irie to Dr. Bell, the missionary secretary, 
under date of October 13, 1896, reporting the plans and 
appointments for further work, has much the appearance 
of a familiar stationing-committee's report : 

Tokio.— The First Church, M. Okamoto ; Asakusa, K. Okada; 
Homjo, supphed by S. Tashiro ; Kanda, suppUed by A. Nakagawa. 

29 



450 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Shigaken. — Kusatsu and Moriyama, S. Doi; Hachiman, Mina- 
kuchi, and Otsu (capital of Shigaken), to be opened as soon as 
money is provided. 

Shizuokaken. — Shizuoka and Hamamatsu, two men will be ap- 
pointed as soon as possible. 

Thus does this work in that far-off land beyond the seas 
open, under the blessing of God, with the most cheering 
promise. Dr. Bell about a year ago made a kind of epis- 
copal visit to the mission, and found everything full of 
encouragement. He was received everywhere with open 
doors and open hearts, and returned full of faith and hope 
for the future of the mission so auspiciously begun. 

V. CHANGE IN ORGANIZATION. 

The General Conference of 1893 made a very important 
change in the form of organization of the Missionary 
Board, by which each annual conference is permitted to 
choose a member in addition to those elected by the Gen- 
eral Conference, such members possessing equal privileges 
in the board with those elected by the higher body. 

A most excellent monthly periodical, the Search Light, is 
published by the Missionary Society, edited by its executive 
officers, Drs. Bell and McKee. 

VI. SUMMARY. 

Eleven conferences are at the present time classed as 
mission conferences, and receive aid from the board. Aid 
is also given directly to individual mission churches in 
cities in twenty-three other conferences. To this are to 
be added two conferences in the foreign field, in Africa 
and Germany, and the work in Japan. 

The total amount of money collected and expended by the 
Missionary Board since its organization, in 1853, according 
to the latest figures available at this writing, is $3,636,319.19. 
Of this amount there has been expended for the mission in 



THE GENERAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY 451 

Africa, $281,181.04; in Germany, $64,181.14; in Japan, 
$4,530.80. In addition, the board has received as sacred or 
permanent fund $92,048.36. In the same period there have 
been collected for the home and frontier fields, and ex- 
pended by the annual conferences within their own confer- 
ence districts, sums estimated to reach an aggregate of 
$1,363,680.81, making the grand total of moneys collected 
for the missionary work since 1853 $5,000,000. This 
does not include the further amounts raised through the 
agency of the Woman's Missionary Association. 

VII. GENERAL OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY. 

We have already seen that Rev. J. C. Bright was prac- 
tically the founder of the Home, Frontier, and Foreign 
Missionary Society of the United Brethren Church, and 
also its first corresponding secretary. After four years of 
most devoted service he was compelled, on account of fail- 
ing health, to relinquish the work he so greatly loved. 
He lived until 1866, never regaining his former strength, 
when he was called to his eternal reward. 

In 1857 the General Conference elected as his successor 
Rev. Daniel K. Flickinger, who had returned a few 
months before from his second missionary trip to Africa. 
This election changed the course of Mr. Flickinger 's life, 
while it did not remove him from connection with the 
missionary work. The reader has already seen a more 
extended account of him. 

The General Conference of 1885 elected the Rev. Z. 
Warner, of the Parkersburg Conference, to the ofiice of 
missionary secretary. Dr. Warner had been an active 
and successful itinerant all his life. He was an able 
preacher, an accomplished lecturer, and a facile writer, but 
found it difficult to adapt himself to the details and 
drudgery of ofiice life. In September, 1887, he resigned 



452 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

his office, and a few weeks later accepted the pastoral 
care of a church in Gibbon, Nebraska, performing also 
duty as a teacher in the United Brethren academy located 
there. His labor here was destined to be brief. In Jan- 
uary following he was stricken down with pneumonia, and 
in a few days after his generous spirit passed into the 
presence of his Master. His departure brought profound 
sorrow to the hearts of thousands who had admired and 
loved him. 

On the resignation of Dr. Warner, Rev. William McKee, 
the treasurer of the society since 1885 and for the term 
from 1869 to 1873, was chosen by the executive committee 
of the Missionary Board as acting corresponding secretary 
until the next assembling of the General Conference. One 
year later, in September, 1888, Rev. B. F. Booth, of the 
East Ohio Conference, was elected by the executive com- 
mittee to be assistant corresponding secretary. In May, 
1889, the General Conference elected Dr. Booth to the 
office of corresponding secretary. He performed the duties 
of the office with devout zeal and distinguished ability 
until March 9, 1893, when the Lord whom he served 
called him to his eternal reward. Dr. Booth was born 
in Holmes County, Ohio, on July 4, 1839. He was con- 
verted in 1858, became a member of the Muskingum 
(East Ohio) Conference in 1864, and was ordained by 
Bishop Edwards in 1866. He served efficiently as pastor 
and presiding elder until 1888, when he was called to 
the service of the Missionary Board. He was connected 
with various church boards, and enjoyed in high degree 
the confidence and regard of his brethren. 

The General Conference of 1893 elected as corresponding- 
secretary the present able and energetic incumbent, Rev. 
William M. Bell. Dr. Bell was born in Whitley County, 
Indiana, on November 12, 1860. He was licensed as a 



THE GENERAL MISSIONABY SOCIETY 453 

minister and became a member of the St. Joseph Confer- 
ence in 1879, and was ordained in 1882. He became an 
active and successful pastor, gave attention to the Sunday- 
school work, especially to the normal training of teachers, 
and was for four years president of the Indiana State 
Sunday-School Association. Dr. Bell's work is charac- 
terized by well-directed zeal and rapidity of execution, 
and he is an earnest and inspiring preacher. The General 
Conference selected wisely when he was chosen to this 
important office. 

Rev. William McKee, the treasurer of the society, was 
first elected to this office in 1869, remaining in its service 
until 1873. He was again elected in 1885, and has con- 
tinued to the present. Dr. McKee was born in Fairfield 
County, Ohio, on February 20, 1831. He was converted 
in 1852, became a member of the Auglaize Conference in 
1856, and was ordained to the ministry in 1858. Since 
1868 he has been a member of the Miami Conference. 
He served successfully as pastor until called into the 
general service. In the office of missionary treasurer his 
work is characterized by carefulness and accuracy, and 
his long service as treasurer, amounting now to sixteen 
years, has proved in an eminent degree satisfactory to 
the Church. As a preacher he is clear, concise, and able, 
and always heard with profit. 

The treasurers of the Missionary Society have been 
Eevs. John Kemp, William McKee, J. W. Hott, and 
J. K. Billheimer. 

The headquarters of this society, as of all the general 
departments of the Church, are at Dayton, Ohio. 



CHAPTER III 

THE CHURCH-ERECTION SOCIETY 
I. ORGANIZATION. 

From the organization of the Home, Frontier, and 
Foreign Missionary Society by the General Conference of 
1853 four quadrenniums were to elapse before another 
most important movement was projected — that of the crea- 
tion of the Church-Erection Society. By the agencies of 
the Missionary Society very considerable sums of money 
were gathered, and missionaries were sent to the frontier 
and home fields to gather whom they could into the fold 
of the Church. Hundreds and even thousands who thus 
heard the word and were converted were gathered into local 
organizations, only to be lost again to the Church because 
they were unable without aid from elsewhere to build for 
themselves houses of worship. In many instances, espe- 
cially in the mission conferences of the frontiers, these 
homeless societies after some years entirely disappeared. 
Too weak in numbers and resources to build for themselves 
houses of worship and attract others to their fold, the 
disintegrating process set in. Their membership dimin- 
ished, either by removals or by members seeking relation- 
ship in other more favored denominations, and thus the 
work which had begun with apparently so bright promise 
was in time largely dissipated. Many of the ministers and 
people lamented this condition of things, but were power- 
less to provide a remedy in the absence of any organized 
method of furnishing the needed aid. Appeals by private 

454 



THE CHURCH-ERECTION SOCIETY 455 

letters or through the columns of the Religious Telescope 
usually resulted in but little fruit, and personal visits by 
ministers to the older conferences for the purpose of solic- 
iting were expensive and unsatisfactory. 

In the General Conference of May, 1869, at Lebanon, 
Pennsylvania, a proposition was made looking to the 
organization of a society whose work should lie along- 
side that of the Missionary Society, its office being to 
assist in the building of houses of worship for those 
who, through the labors of the missionaries, were brought 
into the Church. The proposition received the favorable 
attention of the conference, and was referred to a committee 
consisting of Revs. L. S. Chittenden, M. Bulger, J. M. Bishop, 
I. K. Statton, and M. Ambrose. The committee formulated 
a plan for the organization of a society, and submitted a 
report to the conference. The report, upon further dis- 
cussion, was adopted. The organization was to be called 
the Church-Erection Society of the United Brethren in 
Christ. It was not deemed advisable at this time to elect 
a separate board of management, and the interests of the 
new organization were committed to the Missionary Board 
and its corresponding secretary and treasurer to be cared 
for and brought into active life. 

II. PROGRESS AND WORK. 

With no separate agency to push this new work, and 
the officers and board of the Missionary Society having 
quite enough to do and never quite enough money for 
the work for which they were chiefly responsible, the 
collection of funds for the Church-Erection Society did 
not reach any considerable proportions. Nevertheless, in 
the first quadrennium the sum of |1, 215.30 was placed 
to its credit, and four loans aggregating $1,000 were 
made to as many new church-building enterprises. And 



456 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

SO the society had a beginning, and something more than a 
name to hve. At the General Conference succeeding, that of 
May, 1873, held at Dayton, Ohio, a constitution was adopted 
for its government, and the collections during the four years 
following amounted to $8,401.23, and twenty new church- 
houses were erected with aid from its treasury. 

In the General Conference of 1881 the question of 
securing greater efficiency to the work of the society was 
again considered, and action was taken which provided 
for assessments to be made by the annual conferences upon 
all their various charges. The object of this was not only 
to secure larger collections for the treasury, but also to 
inspire a more general interest throughout the denomina- 
tion. The General Conference of 1885, held at Fostoria, 
Ohio, took another forward step, in creating a separate 
board of management who should have charge of this 
special interest. The board was to consist of five persons, 
who were to serve for terms of four years, and the pre- 
siding bishops of the Church and the corresponding 
secretary and treasurer of the society were to be ex officio 
members. But no special secretary and treasurer were 
as yet elected, the duties of these offices being still com- 
mitted to the general officers of the Missionary Society. 

With the growing cares of the secretary and treasurer 
of the Missionary Society, it was becoming apparent that, 
if the work of the Church-Erection Society should have 
proper attention, at least one general officer who should 
devote all his time to its interests must be provided. 
Accordingly, the General Conference of 1889, at York, 
Pennsylvania, elected Rev. J. Hill, of the Erie Con- 
ference, to the office of corresponding secretary. Mr. 
Hill entered upon his duties with an earnest purpose to 
succeed. But the Church, under the former method of 
procedure, had in large degree come to look upon the 



THE CHURCH-ERECTION SOCIETY 457 

church-erection movement as not possessing very great 
importance. It was now twenty years since the society 
had been organized, and no efficient means had as yet 
been provided to bring its work and its needs to the 
attention of the people. The Missionar}^ Society was in 
the field, its work was ably represented by men who 
were especially set to do that work, the people had been 
educated to respond nobly to its calls, and generous sums 
came annually into its treasury. It was fairly before the 
people, and its work prospered accordingly. For the 
Church-Erection Society little was asked, and little was 
obtained. But the form of education which the people 
had received in regard to its work was the most harm- 
ful feature of the situation. Mr. Hill, in consequence, 
obtained so inconsiderable encouragement in the way of 
contributions to the treasury of the society that he believed 
he was not justified in accepting the salary which the 
General Conference had provided, and at the end of a 
year pressed his resignation of his office. The board, 
believing it inexpedient to fill the vacancy, recommitted 
the work to the officers of the Missionary Society. 

The General Conference of 1893, held in Dayton, Ohio, 
again elected a general secretary, the choice this time 
falling upon Rev. C. I. B. Brane, of the Maryland Con- 
ference. Mr. Brane brought his fine abilities to the work 
of soliciting, but did not meet with the success he had 
hoped to gain, the same inertia as regarded giving largely 
for this interest being almost everywhere encountered. He 
accordingly, at the end of a year's service, followed the 
example of Mr. Hill, not wishing to accept a salary for 
work which he felt was not yielding sufficient results. 
The board of management, however, felt that they ought 
to continue the experiment, and, if possible, bring this 
important interest thoroughly to the attention of the peo- 



458 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

pie, in the hope also that larger contributions might yet be 
secured. They accordingly, at their annual session of May, 
1895, elected to the vacancy Rev. William M. Weekley, 
of the Rock River Conference. Mr. Weekley entered upon 
his work in October following. He is an able and earnest 
advocate of his cause, and, notwithstanding the difficulties 
he has had to meet, has attained encouraging success. 

At first sight this history of the work of the society 
might suggest the thought of failure. But nothing could 
be more untrue than this. With all the discouragements 
under which the society has proceeded, it has gathered into 
its treasury a sum now amounting to forty-two thousand 
dollars. Most of this money has been loaned again and 
again, until the aggregate of loans made has reached the 
considerable sum of ninety thousand dollars. In all up 
to the present two hundred and sixty-five churches have 
been aided. And all this has been accomplished with 
almost no expense to the Church. 

The Church-Erection Society, by the terms of its con- 
stitution, does not give money as direct donations for 
church-building purposes, but makes loans, without in- 
terest, in sums of from one hundred to five hundred dol- 
lars, for periods varying from one to five years. In very 
special instances, as in important and more expensive 
missions in cities, the sums may be increased to one 
thousand dollars, and the time may be extended to longer 
periods, at the option of the board of management. 

The work of this society is one of the greatest impor- 
tance to the future growth of the Church, and it is to be 
earnestly hoped that the popular conception of this fact 
will be in time so far advanced that contributions to its 
treasury may fairly correspond to those which are gathered 
for the uses of the Missionary Society. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE WOMAN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION i 
I. ORGANIZATION. 

It may be assumed that the body of learned gentlemen 
who gave us the recent revision of the Holy Scriptures 
were chosen with reference to a safe conservatism, as well 
as for their eminent philological skill. We may note 
therefore an interesting significance in the fact that the 
familiar passage in Psalms, " The Lord gave the word ; 
great was the company of those that published it," was 
rendered by these scholars, " The Lord giveth the word : 
the women that publish the tidings are a great host."^ 
No one will suspect that these learned divines leaned 
unduly toward bringing women into the foreground as 
the evangels of a new evolution in the work of spreading 
the gospel. We are rather to see in this ancient scripture 
a prophecy whose true meaning lay through the ages 
undiscovered, but which now is realizing a magnificent 
fulfillment. Even the plain wording of the passage was 
not understood by the older scholars, much less its spirit 
apprehended. In this new translation we have a beauti- 
ful expression of the literal sense, as well as of the fact 
which it so strikingly sets forth. The present time is in 
a most emphatic degree the era of woman's work, and in 
no department of thought or work has there been a greater 
earnestness or activity than in the religious field. In the 

1 The materials for this sketch are derived chiefly from a pamphlet, " His- 
tory of the Woman's Missionary Association of the United Brethren in Christ," 
prepared by the publishing committee of the association. ^Ps. 68:11. 

459 



460 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Sunday school, in the work of missions, in those reforms 
into which rehgion and morahty enter as a chief element, 
the women of the present are at the front as a great host 
of interested and successful workers. The divine writer 
with the eye of prophecy looks down through the ages. 
He sees the Lord Jehovah giving out messages, and the 
hosts of the women, a great and obedient army, quickly 
taking up the words and publishing them abroad. 

Twenty-one and a half years ago the Woman's Mis- 
sionary Association of the United Brethren in Christ was 
organized. But such movements never take form until 
somebody has been troubled in spirit, until some one has 
wrestled in prayer and has received a special divine 
baptism. When God is pleased to speak, somebody's 
heart must first be prepared to receive the word. In 
this instance the burden was laid upon the heart of an 
unassuming young woman, Miss Elizabeth Hoffman, 
residing a few miles from the city of Dayton. She com- 
municated her thought to Rev. John Kemp, who was 
for so many years treasurer of the parent Missionary 
Board. Mr. Kemp sympathized with her wishes, and 
began talking about the subject to some of the people 
of the Summit Street and First United Brethren churches 
of the city. A meeting was soon after called for the 
purpose of organizing a woman's missionary society for 
the Miami Conference. This meeting was held in the 
Summit Street Church, on May 9, 1872, anticipating by 
three and a half years the forming of the larger or gen- 
eral association. A day and an evening were spent in 
consultation, and as a result an organization was effected 
and a constitution adopted. 

The next step, in accordance with the provisions of the 
constitution, was to organize auxiliary societies on the 
various charges of the conference. A number of local 



THE WOMAN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION 461 

organizations were formed, and collections of funds began 
to be made. Three years afterward a call was issued to 
the women of the Church generally for the assembling 
of a woman's missionary convention. As it was proposed 
that the assembly should be of the nature of a mass con- 
vention, and not a convention of delegates, any who were 
so disposed could attend it without first receiving authority 
as delegates. The conference was held on October 21 and 
22, 1875, in the First United Brethren Church, at Dayton. 
Nine conferences were represented, namely, Miami, Scioto, 
Sandusky, Michigan, Indiana, Western Reserve, Lower 
Wabash, Virginia, and Allegheny. In several other con- 
ferences delegates were appointed, from whom letters of 
encouragement were received. A proposed constitution, 
which had been previously published, was considered and, 
with some amendments, adopted. The name of the 
organization as agreed upon and placed in the constitution 
is the Woman's Missionary Association of the United 
Brethren in Christ. The following officers and board of 
management were then elected : President, Mrs. T. N. 
Sowers ; vice-presidents, Mrs. Z. A. Colestock, Mrs. M. H. 
Bridgeman, Mrs. S. Haywood ; corresponding secretary, Mrs. 
L. R. Keister ; recording secretary, Mrs. D. L. Hike ; treas- 
urer, Mrs. W. J. Shuey. The Miami Conference society 
then reorganized, and paid the moneys which had been 
collected into the treasury of the new and larger associa- 
tion. It was agreed that the annual meetings should be 
held in the spring of the year, and the month of May, 
1876, was designated as the time for the first anniversary, 
the meeting to be held in Dayton. 

The general plan of organization includes a board of 
managers, a board of trustees, annual-conference branch 
societies, local societies, young ladies' bands, and chil- 
dren's bands. The board of managers consists of the 



462 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

trustees, as provided by the constitution, three delegates 
elected annually by each conference branch, life patrons, 
and life directors. The board of trustees is elected by 
the board of managers, and the officers are chosen from 
the trustees. By the provisions of the constitution the 
association, while it elects its own board of managers and 
executive officers, is under the direction of the General 
Conference, and submits quadrennial reports to that body. 
Thus organized and equipped, the association was now 
ready for larger work. No particular field or plan of 
work was, however, determined upon at this initial meet- 
ing, the choice of a mission field being left to be settled 
upon further consideration, and when a nucleus of funds 
should be secured to support an actual work. 

II. THE MISSION IN AFRICA. 

The first anniversary, held as had been agreed, proved 
to be a meeting of great importance as determining, in 
great degree, the future policy and operations of the asso- 
ciation. Mrs. J. K. Billheimer, who had then returned 
from West Africa, was present at this meeting, and made 
a strong plea for the women and children of that benighted 
land. Upon full consideration it was agreed to use the 
funds which had been gathered to support a school in 
Africa. It was also proposed that the school be under 
the control of the missionaries of the general board, at 
or near Shaingay, The officers of the general board 
counseled against this, and suggested that the Woman's 
Association organize a separate and independent mission. 
This suggestion prevailed, and it was decided to open 
work in the thickly populated region up the Bompeh 
River, about sixty miles distant from Shaingay, and 
about fifty miles east of Freetown. Mr. Gomer, then the 
efficient superintendent of the missions under the care of 



THE WOMAN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION 463 

the general board, rendered valuable assistance, by repeated 
visits, in locating the proposed mission at Rotufunk, in the 
territory which had been determined upon. The choice of 
location proved a most excellent one, as has been abun- 
dantly demonstrated by long experience. Miss Emily 
Beeken, who was first under appointment by the general 
board, was transferred to the service of the woman's board, 
and arrived at Rotufunk in the fall of 1877, and thus the 
actual work of the Woman's Association in the foreign 
field was now to begin. 

Miss Beeken began her work under peculiar difficulties. 
The station chosen for her was remote from any other 
mission or place inhabited by white people. All the 
people about her were black, and all were heathen. The 
pall of the deepest intellectual and spiritual darkness had 
rested for ages upon the ancestry of these people, and work 
among them must begin at the beginning. But while 
they were utterly heathen, they were not savages. Miss 
Beeken was received with the utmost kindness. The head- 
man, or chief, of the place gave her welcome and protec- 
tion, and erected for her a harra, or place for public 
worship. On an elevated place near the town was erected, 
at the expense of the association, a mud house for a home 
for Miss Beeken. Thus provided, she established within 
a short time two schools, and in addition to her public 
religious teaching in the harra she visited surrounding 
towns to hold religious services. She began and carried 
forward a large work, too much for the strength of one 
person in that malarious and debilitating climate, and it 
is not surprising that after a little more than a year and 
a half of toil her strength gave way, and she was obliged 
to relinquish her work. During her stay a fine large bell, 
the gift of Mr. John Dodds, of Dayton, Ohio, was sent to 
the station, and its rich tones, the first ever heard by 



464 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

the people, called them to the harra to hear the gospel of 
Jesus. 

Miss Beeken was succeeded by Mrs. M. M. Mair, of 
Glasgow, Scotland, a lady who had an experience of 
twenty-six years of mission work on the west coast 
of Africa. Thoroughly acclimated and acquainted with 
the requirements of the work, she was able at once to 
render efficient service. She reached Eotufunk in Novem- 
ber, 1879. The board of managers had arranged at the 
meeting in May of the previous spring to build a home 
for the missionaries, and the sum of two thousand dollars 
had been easily secured for this purpose. The materials 
were sent from America, and Mrs. Mair superintended 
the work of construction. She possessed splendid qual- 
ities for missionary service, and gained almost unlimited 
influence with the people. The head-men or chiefs of 
the tribes respected every wish she expressed. She estab- 
lished two additional schools, and secured better native 
helpers for the work of instruction. The chief of Eotu- 
funk, Pa Sourie, compelled his people to keep the Sabbath, 
and himself gave up the use of strong drink and tobacco 
as a wholesome example for them. In all the surround- 
ing towns the Sabbath came to be thoroughly regarded 
within the three years and a half of her residence in the 
mission. A great achievement was made in breaking up 
the slave-trade in that section, Rotufunk itself having 
been a traders' station. She also received deeds duly 
executed for one hundred and fifty acres of land at Eotu- 
funk and Palli each, a portion of which was under 
cultivation. 

It was cause for sincere sorrow when this good woman's 
strength began to wane, by reason of incessant labors, as 
well as by advancing years, and a final rest from so exact- 
ing toil became necessary. But the Lord was preparing 



THE WOMAN'S MISSIONABY ASSOCIATION 465 

other laborers for the field. At Union Biblical Seminary, 
in Dayton, Ohio, there were two young students whose 
hearts God touched — Rev. R. N. West and Miss Lida 
Miller. Both were inspired with a common purpose, that 
of bearing the gospel to the heathen, and, uniting their 
hands and hearts in marriage, they left their homes and 
country, under appointment of the woman's board, and 
arrived at Freetown in December of 1882. Mrs. Mair 
remained with them for a few months to introduce them 
to their work, and then set sail for America. Her pres- 
ence at the meeting of the board in the following May, 
at Westerville, Ohio, previous to returning to her home 
in Scotland, was the inspiration of enlarged conjEidence 
and hope. 

To this meeting came a letter from Mr. West saying 
that the attendance at the services at the harra in Rotu- 
funk had become so large that many in rainy weather 
were obliged to stand without in the beating rains, and 
asking that arrangements be made for the erection of 
a chapel. The board concurred, the money was soon 
secured, and the chapel built at a cost of fifteen hundred 
dollars. Eleven hundred of the amount was pledged be- 
fore the board adjourned. The building was sufficiently 
large to accommodate three hundred persons, and was 
provided with a primary room for the smaller children 
in the Sunday school. Mr. Gomer, superintendent of the 
Shaingay Mission, whose name will long be held in loving 
veneration, dedicated this chapel with appropriate services 
on February 24, 1884. After the sermon the people were 
invited to make a free-will offering, and among the con- 
tributions were one hundred and sixty acres of land at 
Palli, five binkeys of rice (between fifty and one hundred 
bushels), one cow, one country-cloth, and thirty-seven 
dollars and fourteen cents in money. There was much 

30 



466 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

rejoicing among the people and the missionaries over the 
completion of this house. 

The work meanwhile had been greatly enlarging. Fifty- 
four regular preaching places had now been established, a 
large increase within the year. More than twenty-five 
hundred people now statedly heard the divine message, 
fully one thousand every Sabbath at different stations con- 
nected with the mission. 

But now a trial of the utmost severity, coming as a 
twofold calamity, was to test the faith and endurance of 
the missionaries. Two weeks after the dedication of the 
chapel one of those devastating wars which are of so 
frequent occurrence in Africa broke out and swept with 
fury over the region where Rotufunk is situated. At the 
same time came also the added scourge of smallpox, 
brought there by a Mohammedan priest. Very quickly 
the people were scattered. The chapel services were almost 
deserted. In nearly all the towns preaching was suspended. 
About fifty died of smallpox. Mr. West was prostrated by 
the dread disease, but the Lord preserved his life. But in 
all this great trial the gospel seemed to acquire a stronger 
hold upon the people than it had before. 

At the suggestion of the board of trustees, who feared 
the effects of the long-continued strain upon the strength 
of Mr. and Mrs. West, they returned to America early 
in 1886, leaving the work under the care of their native 
helpers, with the promise of occasional visits of Mr. Gomer, 
of the Shaingay Mission. In September of the same 
year they returned to the charge which they had come 
to love with the strongest affection. The report for the 
year 1896, a little over ten years from the founding of 
the mission, shows the work to have been in a most 
promising condition. 

In 1887 decided progress was made in strengthening the 



THE WOMAN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION 467 

mission. Two additional laborers, Rev. and Mrs. W. S. Sage, 
were sent out, both graduates of Union Biblical Seminary, 
and both having previous experience in the mission at 
Shaingay, thus adding much to the efficiency of the work. 
A second step was the establishing of a girls' home. The 
object of this was to provide a legal asylum from which 
parents could not sell their little girls as wives to any- 
body who would buy. The holding of women and girls 
as chattels was according to the law of the country, and 
nothing could be done to protect the children when the 
fathers wanted to sell them. A home, however, provided 
a legal shelter, and such a home was built. It w^as named 
"The Mary Sowers Home for Girls," in honor of Mrs. 
Sowers, the first president of the association. Two thou- 
sand dollars were expended in its erection. In 1889 a 
house costing a similar sum was erected as a home for 
boys. It is a good frame structure, with modern con- 
veniences. 

In November, 1889, two more missionaries joined the 
company on the field. They were Miss Frances Williams 
and Miss Ellen Groenendyke, both finely fitted for the 
requirements of the work. In 1890 the school at Bompeh 
was placed in charge of Mrs. Thompson, a daughter of 
Bishop Crowther, of the Niger Mission. Mrs. Thompson 
made an important advance in insisting that the parents 
must clothe their children, instead of looking to the mis- 
sion for this. A good deal of murmuring arose, but she 
was resolute, and the good end she sought, better alike 
for the parents and the mission, was accomplished. 

On account of impaired health, Mr. and Mrs. Sage, late 
in 1890, returned to America. Their places were soon 
filled by Rev. and Mrs. Jacob Miller, students in Union 
Biblical Seminary, who reached Rotufunk on December 
31, 1890. The need of a medical missionary had long 



468 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

been felt, and for this service the board appointed Miss 
Marietta Hatfield, M.D., of Potsdam, Ohio, in 1891. Ac- 
companying Dr. Hatfield were Miss Elma Bittle, of 
Lewisburg, Ohio, and Miss Ella Schenck, of Lockington, 
Ohio. Both were accomplished teachers, as well as most 
devout Christians. Miss Bittle entered upon her work with 
a heart of devoted love, but her career was soon to close. 
She was overtaken with fatal illness in 1892, and her sweet 
spirit passed out in great triumph into the presence of the 
Master to whom she gave her life. Less than three weeks 
before. Miss Frances Williams had succumbed to the 
dreaded African fever, also giving her life in truest 
martyrdom for the cause she loved. And thus, so near 
together, these two were taken away by death, the first 
since the beginning of the United Brethren work in Africa 
thirty-seven years before, so singularly had the lives of 
our missionaries hitherto been preserved. To these names 
of the departed has since been added that of the Rev. R. 
N. West, also of the Bompeh Mission, who died September 
22, 1894, and whose remains rest in the field to which he 
gave himself as a willing offering. In this year Bishop 
Kephart made an episcopal visit to the missions in Africa, 
and presided at the annual session of the African confer- 
ence, held that year at Rotufunk. 

The missionaries in the Bompeh field at the present 
writing are Rev. L. A. McGrew, Mrs. Clara McGrew, Miss 
Mary Archer, M.D., Miss Florence Cronise, and Miss Minnie 
Eaton. Others in the service of the board are in America 
for rest. 

The home of rest for missionaries on Mount Leicester, 
near Freetown, in the construction of which the woman's 
board is cooperating with the general board, has been 
spoken of in the account of the missions of the latter 
board. 



THE WOMAN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION 469 
III. A MISSION IN GERMANY. 

At the annual meeting of the woman's board of May, 
1880, held at Fostoria, Ohio, the formation of a second 
mission was decided upon. The Rev. C. Bischoff, super- 
intendent of the mission of the general board in Ger- 
many, was present, and spoke with pressing earnestness 
of the need of true evangelical work in Germany. Others 
acquainted with the religious condition of the Fatherland 
supported Mr. BischofF's address. The mission in Africa 
being now fairly launched, and the Church responding 
generously to the calls of the women for funds for their 
work, the board, after full deliberation, decided to begin 
work in the city of Coburg, Germany, a place of fourteen 
thousand inhabitants, and the sum of three hundred and 
fifty dollars was appropriated for making a beginning. 
Kev. G. Noetzold was appointed to the charge. He com- 
menced work in due time, and in March, 1881, organized 
a church. Encouraging success, and many persecutions, 
attended his work. The hall at first obtained soon proved 
too small, and a larger place was hired. The late Rev. 
William Mittendorf, so long editor of our German peri- 
odicals, visited the place not long after, and was greatly 
cheered by what had been accomplished. But hardly 
anywhere is true evangelical work more difiicult or more 
persistently opposed than among a godless people pro- 
fessing Christianity, all of them duly connected with the 
church, but knowing nothing of religion beyond its outer 
forms. So Otterbein found it in America in some of the 
places where he preached, and so the missionaries of our 
Church in Germany have found it. 

In the spring of 1886 Rev. H. Barkemeyer was ap- 
pointed by the conference in Germany to the Coburg 
Mission, the . woman's board still furnishing money for 
its support. Two years later the board decided to raise 



470 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

a fund of three thousand dollars for building a chapel 
for the Coburg congregation, and two thousand three hun- 
dred dollars were secured within the next year toward 
this object. Various obstacles having arisen to prevent 
satisfactory progress, the board, at its meeting of 1889, 
decided to give back the Coburg Mission to the general 
board. It was also proposed to open a mission in Berlin, 
but a suitable person for undertaking the work not being 
found, it was decided to hold the funds collected to be 
used for the erection of a chapel in Germany at such 
time and place as Providence might direct. At the meet- 
ing of 1892, the way being still not open for commencing 
work in Berlin, on account of inability to secure the 
services of a suitable missionary, the board decided to offer 
the funds on hand to the parent board for the erection 
of a chapel at Weimar. The offer was accepted, and the 
amount of $2,703.08 was paid over to the treasurer of 
the general board. This church was recently completed 
and dedicated. It is a substantial and attractive struc- 
ture, and will serve well the uses of the congregation 
which regularly gathers in it. The more spiritual worship 
of these people will prove a blessing to their less spiritual 
neighbors in this old city. The woman's board does not 
now operate any mission in Germany. 

IV. THE CHINESE MISSIONS. 

1. The Mission in Portland, Oregon. 
The spiritual destitution of the Chinese on the Pacific 
Coast early enlisted the interest of the woman's board. 
This interest was especially quickened by the letters of 
Bishop Castle when residing in Oregon. At the annual 
meeting of 1881, held at Western, Iowa, the first steps 
were taken looking toward the commencement of work 
among these people from the Celestial Empire, and the 



THE WOMAN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION 471 

bishop was requested to furnish such information as he 
could respecting a favorable location for opening a work. 

Bishop Castle, after looking over the ground in San 
Francisco and Portland, Oregon, reported favorably for the 
latter city. Here a Christian Chinaman, Moy Ling, had 
for six years conducted an evening school for his fellow- 
countrymen, at his own expense, with such voluntary 
assistance of teachers as he was able to secure. The work 
was becoming too large for him, and he was anxious to 
have some church take it and carry it forward. Here was 
a providential opening, a school already organized and 
under good management, and on the recommendation of 
Bishop Castle the board entered into arrangements to take 
the school. In November, 1882, Mrs. Ellen Sickafoose, 
of Buchanan, Michigan, was appointed to take charge of 
the mission, Moy Ling continuing at its head until her 
arrival in July, 1883. 

Mrs. Sickafoose entered upon her work with twenty 
pupils. This number increased so rapidly that at the end 
of the third quarter there were one hundred and fifty-seven 
enrolled. The pupils were greatly interested, and con- 
tributed during this time over four hundred dollars toward 
the expenses of the school. But the most precious fruit 
of the school was that a large proportion cast away their 
idolatrous joss worship, and espoused the Christian faith. 

The work growing thus rapidly, the board, for the second 
year, appointed Rev. George Sickafoose, who had been 
under engagement with the parent board in a mission in 
East Portland, to assist his wife in the Chinese mission. 
Arrangements were also made soon after for the purchase 
of a building for the school, and for religious services. A 
well-located house was bought for eight thousand dollars, 
and the mission had now a home, with a residence for 
the missionaries on the same lot. 



472 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Many of those who have attended this school have 
returned to their old homes in China, and those who 
became Christians, it may be believed, have done some- 
thing in bearing the seed of gospel truth to their own 
people in their native land. The Chinese are firm in 
their religious convictions, and few could be induced to 
abandon the Christian religion even under stress of bitter 
persecution. Moy Ling, who possesses such sterling per- 
sonal qualities, as showTi by his work in establishing and 
conducting the school for about seven years, still remains 
connected with the mission. The school sessions are held 
regularly every week-day evening, except Saturday. In 
July, 1891, Mr. Sickafoose resigned his connection with 
the school to reenter the active ministry. Mrs. Sicka- 
foose continued in the mission for something over two 
years longer, when failing health necessitated her resig- 
nation, after giving it faithful and successful service for 
a period of ten years. In 1893 Mrs. Mary E. Henkle, of 
Philomath, Oregon, was appointed to fill the vacancy, with 
Moy Ling continuing as interpreter and assistant. 

2. The Mission in China. 

In 1888 the board decided, upon the earnest recom- 
mendation of Mrs. Sickafoose, and after mature considera- 
tion, to open a mission work in China, and in 1889 !Mr. 
Sickafoose and Moy Ling, who had received regular 
authority as a minister, were deputed to visit China and 
locate a mission. Miss Australia Patterson, a graduate of 
Western College, and Miss Lillie P. ShafFner, a student in 
Lebanon Valley College, both possessing fine accomplish- 
ments, were appointed for work in the mission when it 
should be located. The company reached Hong Kong on 
October 31, 1889, and after careful investigation decided 
to locate the mission in Canton, the metropolis of southern 



THE WOMAN' S MISSIONAR Y ASSO CIA TION 473 

China. This part of the work being accomplished, Mr. 
Sickafoose returned to Portland, Moy Ling remaining 
with the other missionaries for over a year. Miss 
Shaffner at the end of a year returned to America on 
account of failing health. A few months later Moy Ling 
returned, and Miss Patterson was now alone. With a 
heart full of true courage, and trusting in the Master 
whom she sought to honor, she addressed herself earnestly 
to her work. Her first important business was to learn 
the Chinese language, always a difficult undertaking. 
Meanwhile, she superintended a Sunday school for the 
children of English and American residents in the city. 
After acquiring sufficient knowledge of the language she 
began the work of house-to-house visitation, with the 
assistance of a Bible-woman as interpreter. In the fall 
of 1891 Miss S. Lovina Halverson, M.D., a former stu- 
dent in Western College, Iowa, was appointed as medical 
missionary, and arrived in Canton soon after. In 1892 
Miss Regina Bigler, M.D., was appointed for the same 
work. She reached Canton in December of that year. 
A medical dispensary was established for the purpose of 
prescribing for the sick. These dispensaries affi^rd very 
special opportunities for religious work, since with the 
medical prescriptions the word of life is also dispensed to 
the women who come for treatment. It is a return to the 
method of the Great Teacher, who gave healing alike to 
the bodies and the souls of men. Large numbers of 
women visit the dispensaries, and many of them gladly 
hear the word of life. 

In the spring of 1893 the Eev. and Mrs. E. E. Fix, 
graduates of Western College and Union Biblical Sem- 
inary, were appointed by the board to the mission in 
Canton. They reached that city in November of that 
year. They were making encouraging progress, when, 



474 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

unfortunately, on account of the failing health of Mrs. 
Fix, in 1895, it was thought best that they should return 
to America. 

In June, 1894, Drs. Halverson and Bigler had the 
rough experience of being mobbed in the streets of Can- 
ton, Miss Halverson very nearly losing her life. She had 
given assistance to a sick Chinaman, and started with him 
to send him to a hospital. Proceeding a short distance, a 
frenzied mob attacked her, with threats to kill her. She 
was pursued, struck down, dragged through the streets, 
and stoned, when a custom-house officer, seeing the tumult, 
came to her rescue. Miss Bigler, learning what had 
occurred, started to bring her home, when she was 
assailed by the same mob, but, fortunately, was not 
struck by the stones that were thrown. A body of 
soldiers rescued her, and the two ladies were afterward 
sent home under an escort. Miss Halverson's experience 
was much like that of Paul at Lystra, and, happily, did 
not result as her assailants intended. The attack was a 
part of the general outbreak against foreigners about that 
time. The intense hatred was due to the prevalence of 
the plague, for which many of the superstitious Chinese 
thought the foreigners w^ere in some way responsible. 
This malady, then so fatal in many of the Chinese cities, 
was the bubonic plague, which prevails now with so great 
fatality in India. 

V. THE woman's evangel. 

The publication of this journal, in sixteen-page form, 
monthly, was begun in January, 1882, with Mrs. L. R. 
Keister, corresponding secretary, as editor. The paper was 
well edited from the start, and was destined to be popular. 
In 1893, on Mrs. Keister's resignation, the editorial work 
was transferred to the cultured pen of Mrs. L. K. Miller. 



THE WOMAN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION 475 

It has proved very helpful in the work, has attained a 
circulation of five thousand copies, and from the beginning 
has paid all expenses of publication. 

VI. EXECUTIVE OFFICERS. 

The Woman's Association has been fortunate in the 
selection of its executive officers. The first president was 
Mrs. Mary Ann Sowers, a lady w^idely known for her 
efficiency and Christian zeal. She was chosen in 1875. 
She resigned in 1879, on account of failing health, and 
died November 17, 1880. In May, 1879, Mrs. Sylvia 
Haywood, of "Westerville, Ohio, a lady of most estimable 
personal qualities, was elected president. At the meeting 
in May, 1887, succeeding Mrs. Haywood's death, Mrs. 
L. K. Miller was chosen to this office. She has given to 
its service ten years of diligent attention. Mrs. Keister, 
who was corresponding secretary from the beginning, 
resigned in 1893, and was succeeded by Mrs. B. F. Witt, 
of Indianapolis. The office force at the present writing 
consists of Mrs. Witt as general secretary, and Mrs. Miller 
as president and editor of the Evangel. 

VII. SUMMARY. 

From a summarized statement in the corresponding 
secretary's report for 1896 it is seen that the Chinese 
mission in Portland is progressing hopefully. In addition 
to this there is an American mission in that city under the 
care of the board. This church, and the Sunday school 
and young people's society connected with it, are in a 
prosperous condition. The church property, valued at nine 
thousand dollars, added to that of the school originally 
purchased, makes a total of property in Portland valued at 
seventeen thousand dollars. Rev. and Mrs. E. E. Fix 
have recently taken charge of this mission church. 



476 THE UNITED BRETHBEN IN CHRIST 

In Canton there are three American missionaries, two 
of the number medical ; one native pastor, one chapel- 
keeper, several Bible-women, one organized church, and 
six day schools. The medical dispensary, open one or 
two days in the week, has within a year supplied treat- 
ment to over thirteen thousand patients. Many of these 
are in the city away from the dispensary, and at smaller 
places adjacent to Canton, The prescriptions up to the 
present time are, with few exceptions, made without charge. 

In the Bompeh Mission, Africa, there were, in May, 1896, 
American missionaries, seven ; in America for rest, four, 
making eleven under appointment of the board. There 
were 122 preaching places ; organized churches, three, 
with 120 communicants. In addition to these were ^5 
inquirers' or seekers' classes, with an enrollment of 1,286. 
Four Sunday schools were reported, with 289 pupils ; eight 
day schools, with 254 pupils. There were four ordained 
and eight unordained itinerants ; three chapels and six 
mission-houses. The mission-houses were valued at $8,200, 
the school-houses at $4,000, the chapels at |2,400, indus- 
trial building at $800, boat-house and other buildings at 
$1,000, making a total of $16,400. 

The total amount of moneys collected and expended 
by the Woman's Missionary Association from its organiza- 
tion, in 1875, to May, 1896, was $215,766.44. 



CHAPTER V 

COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 
I. INTRODUCTORY. 

We have seen that the founder of the United Brethren 
Church, Bishop Otterbein, was a man of thorough scholastic 
and theological training. We have also seen that the 
greater number of his early associates in evangelistic work 
were men of but modest educational attainments, chiefly 
such as could be reached through the common schools 
of their time, or were gained in private study after entering 
upon their ministerial career. But what they lacked in 
the learning of the schools they made up largely by the 
greater zeal and industry in the active work of their 
calling. Some portion of their limited libraries was 
usually carried in the saddle-bags, and it was not an 
unusual thing to see them riding on horseback with book 
in hand as they went from one appointment to another 
on their extended circuits. Some of them indeed obtained 
in this manner many of the advantages of a liberal educa- 
tion. Habits of close and sustained thinking, the best 
result of mental training, if not the details of a broader 
learning, were thus formed, and the men who seemed to 
the more cultured to be without education often exhibited 
great power in dealing with pulpit subjects. They ex- 
pressed their thoughts with clearness and force, frequently 
with genuine eloquence, and usually carried conviction to 
the minds of their hearers. 

Notwithstanding the fact that many of these early 

477 



478 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

preachers thus sought for themselves a better equipment 
for their work, and also that their great leader was a man 
of broad and thorough scholarship, there came to be 
fostered among them to a considerable extent a feeling 
of actual prejudice against a collegiate training for min- 
isters. This feeling seems to have arisen from the fact 
that they saw many of the educated ministers with whom 
they came in nearest contact to be men seemingly depend- 
ing more upon their educational attainments in their work 
of preaching than upon a living, spiritual connection with 
the divine. The sermons of these men were looked upon 
as learned, but unspiritual, as indeed were frequently the 
lives of the ministers themselves, and these lay preachers 
— for such were many of them at the first — felt that it 
was better to rely directly upon the help of the Holy 
Spirit in the pulpit than upon the aid derived from books. 
Their work, like that of their similarly called and endowed 
fellow- workers in another denomination, — the followers of 
Wesley and Asbury, — had upon it the manifest seal of 
the Holy Spirit, in whose inspiration and power they 
trusted, and they felt that a college education would in 
some way interfere with this fuller trust in the divine 
Spirit for success. The prejudice thus fostered was carried 
down to a comparatively late date, and when some of the 
ministers of a little more than half a century ago began 
to talk of establishing a college for the Church they met 
with the most earnest opposition. The proposition, if it 
were carried into effect, it was believed would prove a 
most serious blow to the spirituality and future success 
of the Church. 

Among those who thus opposed were some of the ablest 
and most influential ministers of the Church. There are 
many persons living who remember Bishop John Eussel as 
a man of extraordinary gifts, whose abilities as a preacher 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 479 

and counselor led his brethren to exalt him to the office 
of bishop. Yet this great and good man deplored ear- 
nestly the movement which resulted in building Otterbein 
University. But it is well known how the good bishop 
lived to change his mind on this subject, that he afterward 
gave strong encouragement to the building of a college for 
the Church, and that before he died he made provision for a 
liberal portion of his estate to be used in the interest of the 
theological training of ministers. It is also well remem- 
bered that Bishop Edwards, a man of similarly strong intel- 
lectual endowments, and one of the ablest and most devout 
preachers the Church has ever had, for a long time re- 
garded with apprehension the movement toward estab- 
lishing educational institutions. His doubts, however, in 
time gave way, and he became a true friend of the colleges, 
as also later of Union Biblical Seminary, an institution 
founded to promote especially what these fathers of the 
Church most feared — the theological training of its min- 
isters. 

This apprehension, however, cherished by these and 
others of the Church fathers, had a more specific reference 
to the college training of ministers, and not to the educa- 
tion of the people in general. The feeling was that of 
opposition to naming this or that son in a family for the 
ministry, without reference to a distinct divine call, and 
then sending him to college and bringing him out as a 
full-fledged preacher. Thus the colleges came sometimes 
to be spoken of as " preacher factories." The people of the 
Church believed in and supported the common schools, just 
as did those of other denominations, and some of their 
sons and daughters were sent to college, but they feared the 
effect upon the spiritual life of the Church of a ministry 
educated and relying for success upon the skill thus 
attahied, instead of trusting to the help of the Holy Spirit. 



480 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

The feeling of the people of the earlier periods of the 
Church is truly expressed by Rev. H. G. Spayth, the first 
historian of the Church, who was altogether friendly to 
higher education, and yet shared with others the fear that 
the earnest, simple-hearted, but spiritually-minded ministry 
of those days might be displaced by an educated but 
unspiritual ministry. Writing in the Religious Telescope,^ 
Mr. Spayth said : " Now mark me, literary, scientific, and 
religious attainments we, as a church and people, have 
always respected, admired, and honored. . . . Had our 
fathers and brethren believed it to be their duty to build 
up seminaries of learning, it could have been done, as 
well as other things ; but they confessed that their call 
was emphatically to the weightier matter, that of winning 
souls. As to the ministry, they sought not so much to 
fill the sacred stand with men of polished eloquence as 
with men of power, of love, and of sound minds — men 
called of God, as was Aaron. They had also learned these 
two lessons : first, that learning is not the primary, but 
the secondary means, or help, in the gospel ministry ; 
second, that the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life." 

The first definite action looking toward the founding 
of an institution of learning for the Church was taken 
by the General Conference of 1845, convened in Circle- 
ville, Ohio. The estimated membership of the entire 
denomination at this time reached about thirty thou- 
sand. The Church was represented in this conference 
by three bishops and twenty-four delegates from annual 
conferences. The bishops were Henry Kumler, Sen., John 
Coons, and Henry Kumler, Jun. Among the delegates 
were J. J. Glossbrenner, Jacob Markwood, John Russel, 
J. Bachtel, J. Ritter, Alexander Biddle, Joshua Mont- 
gomery, E. Yandemark, H. G. Spayth, George Bonebrake, 

iVol. VI., pp. 336, 337. 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 481 

Daniel Bonebrake, and others equally well known in the 
counsels of the Church. Of the delegates the first three 
named were afterward chosen to the office of bishop, and 
one alone, Alexander Biddle, survives to the present. The 
subject of education was taken under consideration by this 
conference, and the following tersely expressed resolutions 
were, after mature deliberation, adopted by a nearly unani- 
mous vote : 

Resolved^ That proper measures be adopted to establish an insti- 
tution of learning. 

Resolved^ That it be recommended to the attention of the annual 
conferences, avoiding, however, irredeemable debts. 

Two things are worthy of note in this action. The 
first is the apparent almost complete unanimity which 
characterized the movement, indicating that these fathers 
were not averse to education in general, their opposition 
being, as before remarked, to an educated and unregen- 
erate ministry. The second is their decided opposition 
to incurring debt, a principle to which their sons might 
have adhered with great advantage. In the appendage 
to the second resolution there is plainly visible the hand 
of the Kumlers and Russel, whose thrift and strong aver- 
sion to debt are alike remembered. It is also evident 
that the conference in this action contemplated the found- 
ing of but a single institution for the entire denomination. 
And when it is considered that the whole estimated mem- 
bership of the Church was but the limited number given 
above, one school would seem to have been for a begin- 
ning quite enough. Such, however, was not the feeling 
of the Church, as was presently seen. When once the 
General Conference had spoken favorably, the impulse 
to build colleges soon widely asserted itself, and almost 
every conference took up the subject for discussion, and 
many of them for definite action. A number of schools 

31 



482 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

were almost immediately projected, most of which were 
of necessity destined soon to be absorbed or to perish 
altogether. 

The Miami Conference was the first to respond to the 
action of the General Conference. At the session of this 
conference, held in Otterbein Chapel, in Darke County, 
Ohio, on ]\Iarch 3, 1846, a resolution was adopted pro- 
posing to unite with the conferences in central and 
northern Indiana to found a college at Bluffton, in the 
latter State, or at some other suitable point which might 
be chosen. The St. Joseph Conference, Indiana, at its 
session in Kosciusko County, in October following, enter- 
tained favorably the proposition of the ^liami Conference, 
and appointed three trustees for the proposed college, the 
first trustees for a college appointed in the Church. These, 
it was intended, should cooperate with other trustees who 
might be appointed by other conferences. The subject 
received considerable discussion, both in jDrivate and in 
the columns of the Religious Telescope, but for some reason 
the college then proposed did not materialize. 

The next movement toward college building took form 
in the Scioto Conference. This conference, convening in 
Pickaway County, Ohio, on October 26, 1846, was met by 
a delegation representing Blendon Young Men's Seminary, 
located at the town of Westerville, Ohio, and belonging 
to the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Ohio Wesleyan 
University, of that church, having just been projected at 
Delaware, Ohio, this seminary was left stranded, with a 
debt of one thousand three hundred dollars. The repre- 
sentatives of this institution came before the Scioto Con- 
ference with a proposition to transfer to the conference 
the property, with all its appurtenances, if the conference 
would agree to assume this indebtedness. The proposition 
had at least the semblance of being generous, and was 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 483 

at once accepted. A board of trustees was appointed, 
and a resolution adopted inviting neighboring conferences 
to cooperate. 

In the month of January following, 1847, the Indiana 
Conference, located in southern Indiana, resolved upon 
the building of a college either at Dublin or at Washing- 
ton, in that State. A committee, consisting of C. Lynn, 
L. S. Chittenden, and J. Lopp, was appointed to invite the 
cooperation of the White River, St. Joseph, and Miami 
conferences. This scheme soon perished, but others were 
presently to follow. The Allegheny Conference had caught 
the spirit of the educational movement, and at its session 
beginning February 4 of the same year, 1847, at Mount 
Pleasant, Pennsylvania, a series of vigorous resolutions was 
adopted looking to the immediate building of a college, 
either at ]\Iount Pleasant or at Johnstown. A committee 
was appointed to whom the matter was intrusted. This 
committee wisely determined to receive bids, and to locate 
the school at the place which offered the largest local 
subscription for the purchase of ground and the erection 
of buildings. The result was that Mount Pleasant was 
selected for the location, and in 1850 Mount Pleasant Col- 
lege was opened for the reception of students. In 1858 this 
college was absorbed by Otterbein University. The earnest- 
ness of the Allegheny brethren in the movement is indi- 
cated by the fact that the conference placed on record a 
resolution threatening censure upon any minister who 
should oppose with adverse influence the college agent 
in soliciting funds for the enterprise. Pev. J. Pitter, 
author of "Pitter's Sketches," was appointed the first 
traveling agent for the college.^ 

Two years later, in 1849, the Indiana conferences having 
failed to reach a successful cooperation, the quarterly con- 

1 "Lawrence's History, Vol. II., p. 373. 



484 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

ference of Newbern Circuit decided to open a seminary 
in the town of Hartsville, in Bartholomew County. The 
Indiana Annual Conference within the same year supported 
this action of the quarterly conference, and subsequently 
the White River Conference gave its indorsement. The 
Wabash and St. Joseph conferences gave to the enterprise 
for a time a nominal support. The projectors, flattered 
with the seeming promise of success, soon gave to their 
school the pretentious name of Hartsville University. 
For a number of years, though carrying so large a title, 
the school did good work as an academy. The name was 
subsequently changed to Hartsville College. But a greater 
misfortune than even its financial or other limitations was 
destined to befall it, its trustees in the time of the rad- 
ical defection succeeding in carrying it away with the 
secession. At the present time, whatever the future may 
yet hold for it, the fortunes of the institution have reached 
a low ebb. 

Two other institutions, also the immediate outgrowth of 
the educational impulse which swept over the Church, 
remain to be noted. In 1853 the Illinois Conference, sup- 
ported for a time by the Eock River, established an institu- 
tion at Blandinsville, Illinois, known as Blandinsville Semi- 
nary. The school exerted a good influence for the Church 
for a time, but its support was insufficient to give promise 
of a future college, and it was later discontinued. Another 
was undertaken, with apparently fairer prospect, but 
equally destined to failure, by the Michigan Conference. 
An institution located at Leoni, known as Michigan Union 
College, owned by the Michigan Conference of the Wes- 
leyan Methodist Church, valued for college purposes at 
ten thousand dollars, but already a failure, was transferred 
to the Michigan Conference of the United Brethren Church. 
The name after the transfer was changed to Michigan 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 485 

Collegiate Institute, and for a time the school under its 
new management seemed destined to reach fair success. 
But the Church in this State was not able to give it 
sufficient support in either money or students, and after 
an earnest struggle against the inevitable it was discon- 
tinued. 

It would be an injustice to the colleges of the United 
Brethren Church to discount the value of their work on 
account of their comparative smallness, as contrasted with 
some of the older and more largely endowed institutions, 
and especially with the great universities. It is a well- 
recognized fact that the most thorough work is frequently 
done in the smaller institutions. Their classes numbering 
from a dozen to twenty students, instead of a hundred and 
upward, each individual student is brought into more 
direct contact with the professors, and the possibilities of 
better instruction, because more personal, are sufficiently 
manifest. The rank gained by their graduates when 
entering some of the large universities for the pursuit 
of post-graduate courses, and, more broadly, the distinc- 
tion achieved in the various callings of life by those who 
have gone forth from these institutions, attest the sub- 
stantial character of the work accomplished in the class- 
room. Here, as elsewhere, the words hold good, "By 
their fruits ye shall know them." 

II. OTTERBEIN UNIVERSITY, 

The reader has seen that while the Miami Conference 
was the first among the annual conferences to take action 
looking toward the founding of an educational insti- 
tution, the Scioto was the first to put such a movement 
into effect. This conference, at its session in Pickaway 
County, Ohio, in October, 1846, having accepted the 
proposition of the representatives of Blendon Young Men's 



486 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Seminary, as has been mentioned, appointed a board of 
trustees to take charge of the new enterprise. This board 
consisted of Mr. J. Dresbach and Kevs. WilHam Hanby 
and Lewis Davis. The trustees met at Circleville, in 
December following, and appointed Mr. Davis as soliciting 
agent for the school. Mr. Davis was also to visit neighbor- 
ing annual conferences, and enlist their cooperation. A 
better selection for this important work could not have 
been made. Mr. Davis possessed in a high degree the 
qualities essential to success. He was cool and deliberate 
in his methods, possessed unlimited will power, thoroughly 
believed in the cause which he undertook to build up, and 
gave himself to it with all possible earnestness and deter- 
mination. Two months later, in February, 1847, he visited 
the Sandusky Conference, whose session was held in Wood 
County. He presented to that body the enterprise under- 
taken by the brethren of the Scioto Conference, and asked 
for their cooperation. An earnest discussion followed^ and 
a favorable vote was secured by a small majority, the 
conference agreeing to elect trustees and a soliciting agent. 
From this place Mr. Davis went to the Muskingum Con- 
ference, in session in Stark County, bringing to that body 
a like proposition. The conference, after a warm discus- 
sion, voted it down, and the resolute agent met his first 
real disappointment. 

The trustees elected by the Scioto and Sandusky con- 
ferences met in session in Westerville on April 26, 1847. 
After free deliberation they decided that the name of 
the institution should be Otterbein University. It was 
most fitting that this pioneer school of the Church should 
be named for its great founder, Bishop Otterbein. The 
name university, however, was rather to be regarded as 
a prophecy to be realized in the future, for not even a 
college was at first attempted. The school was organized 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 487 

as an academy, or seminary, its head bearing the appro- 
priate title of principal, instead of president. Mr. William 
R. Griffith, a graduate of Asbury University, was chosen 
for this position, his associate teachers being Miss Mary 
Murray and Miss Sylvia Carpenter. It will be seen that 
this beginning was on a scale quite large enough, when 
we consider that the entire membership of the Church 
of that time, as we have already seen, did not exceed 
about thirty thousand, and, still further, that so far only 
two conferences were enlisted in the support of the 
work. On the 2d day of September, in that year, 1847, 
the doors of the school were opened for the admission 
of students. The attendance on the first day was not 
especially promising, only eight students presenting them- 
selves. This number, however, was increased during the 
year to eighty-one, so that the aggregate results w^ere 
highly encouraging. Such was the modest beginning of 
an institution which has in the process of time grown 
into a position of great honor in the denomination w^hich 
has fostered it, as well as of distinguished standing among 
the colleges of the State in which it is located, and of the 
country as well. 

Otterbein University from its beginning admitted stu- 
dents of both sexes to equal privileges in its courses of 
study, and the example was followed by Western and 
Lebanon Valley colleges, and all the other institutions 
of the Church. At the time of the founding of these 
earlier schools the principle of coeducation was still held 
in grave doubt by many educators, and many colleges 
and universities to the present day, especially in Europe, 
do not admit women to the same courses as men, or confer 
the same degrees upon the completion of the required work. 
The plan of coeducation has been found to work admi- 
rably, resulting not only in the encouragement of a higher 



488 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

standard of personal deportment, with the almost total 
prevention of conduct even bordering upon hazing, but 
also in quickening a worthy ambition in study and the 
attainment of higher results in the classes. 

In these early days of the college its success depended 
greatly upon the energy and efficiency of its chief financial 
agent. It needed friends in other conferences besides the 
two which entered into cooperation at the first. Mr. Davis 
visited successive conferences, and the institution being 
now fairly started he found it less difficult to secure further 
support, several conferences being soon added to the list, 
including the Miami, and others. The conferences now 
uniting in the support of the college are the Scioto, the 
Miami, the Allegheny, the Auglaize, the Central Ohio, 
the East Ohio, the Erie, the North Ohio, the Ohio Ger- 
man, the Ontario, the Parkersburg, the Sandusky, and 
the St. Joseph. 

The college had not long been founded when the ques- 
tion of connecting with it a system of manual labor was 
raised. The subject was freely discussed in the columns 
of the Religious Telescope, in the meetings of the board of 
trustees, and in the annual conferences. Some of the 
strongest friends of the college believed that it could be 
made really useful to the Church only if its students were 
required to cultivate habits of industry for hand as well 
as brain. Among those taking part in this discussion 
Rev. Henry Kumler, Jun., bore a prominent part. He 
was a liberal supporter of the college, but believed that 
the manual-labor feature was essential to its best success. 
In an article in the Telescope he spoke as follows : " Can- 
not institutions of learning be conducted without being 
made a curse to many, as we see they are? In many 
instances students, while at college, lay the foundations 
of both their physical and moral ruin. They too often 




^ 2 

m z 

O H 



35 



O J 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 489 

return from college disinclined to labor, and profligate in 
their habits. ... So far as I can learn, we of the Miami 
Conference will go in favor of an institution in which 
manual labor and worldly economy are taught, as well 
as letters and morality ; no student to be admitted who 
is able, physically, to perform labor, and will not. . . . 
Out of such an institution we might expect the rich and 
the poor to come with the best intellectual stock, capable 
of enduring the hardships common to man in this rough 
world. . . . For such an institution our plain and honest 
people will go ; for they want their children educated, 
but not at the sacrifice of their health, habits of industry, 
and immortal souls." And who shall find any fault with 
the logic of this view? After the lapse of nearly a half 
century we find a strong tendency toward the practical 
in the educational system of our country, and schools of 
technology are recognized as among the most honored and 
useful, while many of our best institutions have added a 
department of this character.^ 

Under the impulse of this agitation the trustees of 
Otterbein University were led to make provision for the 
manual-labor experiment, upon a plan which must of 
necessity work its own failure. The Church of that time 
was very largely rural ; most of its ministers had come 
from the farm, and it was quite natural that farming was 
to constitute the chief feature in the manual-labor depart- 

1 As illustrating the liberal feeling of Mr. Kumler toward the college, though 
he was not a man of large wealth, it is related of him, that when he was in 
attendance at one of the early meetings of the board of trustees, of which he 
was a member, a college agent deferentially approached him, and expressed 
the hope that he would make a small contribution, at least ten dollars, toward 
the needs of the college. Mr. Kumler regarded him for a moment with a quiz- 
zical sort of expression, and replied that if the agent would give him ten 
dollars he would kick the whole thing down into A4um Creek, a small stream 
flowing through the lower lands near by. The college building which he meant 
to dispose of in this way was the old Blendon Seminary. He had in mind the 
erection of something better for the college, and before the board adjourned he 
had given his obligation for five hundred dollars toward the building of the 
new college edifice. 



490 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

ment of the school. A farm was purchased, a superin- 
tendent was appointed, and the students were set to work. 
But the long winter season was unfavorable for farming, 
and in the summer came the long vacation. And as the 
young men were not to farm for the purpose of learning 
how, — a business which most of them understood pretty 
well, — but were to use the farm for the purposes of a 
gymnasium, no very great enthusiasm could be awakened 
among them. And so, despite the many warm discussions 
in the board of trustees, and the vigorous resolutions 
adopted and spread upon its records, and the numerous 
articles printed in the Religious Telescope, farming at Otter- 
bein was doomed to perish. Very wisely, by and by, the 
farm was sold, and the proceeds applied to relieving the 
rapidly growing liabilities of the college. 

The outbreak of the great Civil War in 1861 bore 
heavily against this institution, as against all the colleges 
of the land. The call to arms was heroically responded 
to by the young men of the country, and the colleges 
everywhere yielded up their full quota. So large was the 
proportion of Otterbein students enlisted that some of the 
classes were almost wholly depleted of their young men. 

Soon after the opening of the college it became apparent 
that the old wooden building was insufficient for its uses, 
and arrangements were early made looking toward the 
erection of a new college building. A large building was 
erected, three stories in height, the rooms on the lower 
floors to be occupied for recitation, library, and other 
purposes, while on the upper floor there was a large 
room intended for a college chapel and to serve as a 
place of worship for the United Brethren congregation 
in Westerville. It would be difficult to conceive of a 
building less fortunately constructed with reference to 
specific purposes than v/as this first college building 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 491 

erected by the Church. Yet it served its ends for a series 
of years until, in the night of January 26, 1870, it was 
consumed by fire. The loss of this building, with its 
library, cabinet, and scientific apparatus, was felt for a 
time to be a most serious calamity.^ Steps were, how- 
ever, immediately taken to repair the loss by the erection 
of a new building. The result was the rearing of the 
present commodious, handsomely designed, and convenient 
edifice. This building is one hundred and seventy by 
one hundred and four feet in extent, and two and three 
stories in height above the basement. It contains twenty- 
six rooms, including chapel, four literary halls, recitation, 
library, and reading rooms, and offices. In addition to 
this large building, the central figure of the group, there 
are three others — a ladies' hall, a conservatory of music, 
and a Christian Association and gymnasium building. The 
last-named is a students' enterprise. It is an extremely 
handsome structure, accommodating both a Young Men's 
and a Young Women's Christian Association, and is the 
first college Christian Association building erected in the 
State of Ohio. The grounds connected with the college, 
now finely shaded by a grove planted many years ago, 
comprise about eight and one-half acres. The buildings 
and grounds together are valued at about seventy thou- 
sand dollars. 

The amount of endowment secured for the college is 
over eighty-two thousand dollars, to which are added 
contingent assets amounting to about sixty-two thousand 

1 Among the misfortunes most deeply regretted in connection with this fire 
was the loss of a copy of the famous Sinaitic Manuscript, of which there were 
but six in the United States. This copy, the special gift of the Russian Govern- 
ment to the university, was secured through the good offices of Prof. Julius 
Degmeier, who was at that time connected with the school, and who, through 
personal acquaintance with certain high European officials, was able to bring 
his request for the university to the favorable consideration of the Russian 
authorities. The loss was all the greater since it was necessarily impossible to 
replace it by another copy. 



492 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

dollars. The total assets are over two hundred and seven- 
teen thousand dollars. For many years the college strug- 
gled with debt, sometimes almost hopelessly. A few years 
ago it was resolved to raise the sum of eighty thousand 
dollars for its relief. A heroic effort was required before 
this amount was reached, but the greatly desired end was 
finally gained, and the college was placed upon a per- 
manently assured foundation. Liabilities to some extent 
still remain to be provided for. In this effort to relieve 
t]ie college some of its friends devoted so much time and 
effort, as well as money, as to deserve special mention here. 
Among these were Mr. David L. Rike and Mr. Samuel 
E. Kumler, of Dayton. The latter gave several months 
almost continuously to the work. 

It would be impossible to estimate now, as the college 
has entered upon its semicentennial year, the amount of 
service it has accomphshed. It has graduated in all since 
its founding four hundred and fifty-six students, while 
others who have been in attendance for longer or shorter 
periods, completing partial courses, are numbered by many 
thousands. Its graduates occupy positions of honor and 
responsibility, in ecclesiastical and civil life, in many dif- 
ferent States of the Union. It would be equally impossible 
to forecast the future of this first school of the Church. 
Its rank is still that of a college, its place as a university, 
in the larger sense of the term, being still a dream to be 
realized in the future, as the needs and the liberality of 
the Church are alike enlarged. But its grade is high 
among the foremost of the colleges, and its friends may 
indulge the hope that it will in time attain to the dis- 
tinguished position which its name indicates. 

The following gentlemen have held the position of pres- 
ident of the college : William R. Griffith, A.M. (principal), 
1847-49 ; Rev. WilHam Davis, 1849-50 ; Rev. Lewis Davis, 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 493 

D.D., 1850-57 and 1860-71 ; Rev. Alexander Owen, 1858- 
60 ; Eev. D. Eberly, D.D., 1871-72 ; Rev. H. A. Thompson, 
D.D., LL.D., 1872-86 ; Rev. Henry Garst, D.D., 1886-89 ; 
Hon. C. A. Bowersox, A.M., 1889-91; Rev. Thomas J. 
Sanders, Ph.D., 1891 to the present time. The faculty 
of the college at present comprises sixteen persons : Rev. 
T. J. Sanders, Ph.D., president and professor of philos- 
ophy ; John Haywood, LL.D., professor emeritus; John 
E. Guitner, A.M., Greek language and literature ; Rev. 
Henry Garst, D.D., mental and moral philosophy and 
English Bible ; Louis H. McFadden, A.M., natural science ; 
George Scott, Ph. D., Latin language and literature ; 
Frank E. Miller, Ph.D., mathematics ; Tirza L. Barnes, 
B.S., English language and history, and principal of the 
ladies' department ; Rev. William J. Zuck, A.M., English 
language and literature ; Rudolph H. Wagoner, A.B., 
assistant in Latin and principal of preparatory and 
normal departments ; Josephine Johnson, M.A., modern 
languages and literature ; Rev. W. 0. Fries, A.M., Chris- 
tian evidences ; Isabel A. Sevier, drawing and paint- 
ing ; Gustav Meyer, director conservatory of music ; M. 
Luther Peterson, voice culture ; Frank S. Fox, A.M., elo- 
cution. 

Some of the men connected with the college have given 
it long periods of service. John Haywood, LL.D., was 
elected professor of mathematics in 1851, and, with the 
exception of a few years, has remained in the college to 
the present time. He has occasionally, in the division of 
labor, taught also natural science. In 1893, on account 
of increasing years, he was relieved of full duty, and was 
elected professor emeritus. He is in the forty-first year of 
his connection with the college. 

Thomas McFadden, A.M., M.D., became connected with 
the college in 1858 as professor of natural science. He died 



494 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

in 1884, after a continuous service of twenty-six years, 
except a short period spent in the AVar as an army surgeon. 

John E. Guitner, A.M., a graduate of the college, was 
elected professor of the Greek language and literature in 
1862. He has remained in this connection continuously 
since, heing now in the thirty-fifth year of his service. 

Henry Garst, D.D., also a graduate of the college, was 
elected professor of the Latin language and literature in 
1869. He was ]3resident from 1886 to 1889, three years, 
since which time he occupies the chair of mental and moral 
philosophy and English Bible. He is in the twenty-eighth 
year of continuous service. 

Dr. H. A. Thompson, a graduate of AVashington and 
Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, was elected professor of 
mathematics and natural science in 1862. He was presi- 
dent from 1872 to 1886 ; professor of logic and rhetoric 
1886-87, serving through a period of twenty-five years. 

Dr. T. J. Sanders, a graduate of Otterbein University, 
title Ph.D. received from Wooster University on examina- 
tion, was elected president in 1891. He possesses learning 
and fine enthusiasm. His accession inspired the friends 
of the college to the recent extraordinary effort to relieve 
it of its nearly hopeless embarrassment. He may safely 
be thought of as one of the younger men of the Church 
for whom there is an assured future. 

Among those who, after Dr. Davis, performed most 
efficient service for the college as financial managers were 
Revs. J. Weaver, J. M. Spangler, J. B. Eesler, C. AV. Miller, 
and S. ]\I. Hippard. Mr. John Knox, as a member of the 
prudential committee, has been one among the safest of 
the financial counselors. The present executive committee 
of the general finance committee are ]\Ir. S. E. Kumler, 
Rev. W. J. Shuey, Mr. John Gerlaugh, Mr. Fred. H. Rike, 
and Prof. Albert B. Shauck. 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 495 

III. WESTERN COLLEGE. 

The first steps looking toward the founding of an institu- 
tion of learning by the United Brethren Church west of the 
Mississippi River were taken by the Iowa Annual Confer- 
ence at a session held at Muscatine in August, 1855. After 
a full consideration of a proposition for this end a board 
of trustees was elected, charged with the duty of proceeding 
immediately to the work. This first board consisted of 
Revs. Solomon Weaver, W. G. Miller, Joseph Miller, Daniel 
Runkle, and Mr. Jonathan Neidig. The board was in- 
structed "as soon as possible to select a site for the location 
of the college, in as convenient a place as possible for the 
whole Church in Iowa." It was decided that the new 
institution should be known as "Western College of the 
United Brethren in Christ." 

At a meeting held in February, 1856, the trustees accepted 
a tract of land lying in the open prairie, near Shueyville, in 
Linn County, for a location, and soon afterward commenced 
the erection of the main building. The town springing up 
around it took the name of Western. The Des Moines Con- 
ference, having resolved to cooperate with the Iowa, elected 
J. Hopkins and C. Witt as trustees, and at the meeting in 
October Solomon Weaver was elected president of the college. 
The work on the building was pushed vigorously, and on 
January 1, 1857, the doors were opened for the reception of 
students. The other members of the faculty for the open- 
ing term were S. S. Dillman, Mrs. E. S. Dillman, and J. C. 
Shrader. 

The manual-labor system, which had been so elaborately 
discussed in the columns of the Religious Telescope in con- 
nection with Otterbein University, — with much greater 
success in type than in the furrows of the farm, — was 
regarded with favor by the founders of Western College. 
The trustees adopted the plan, provided a farm, and after 



496 THE UNITED BRETHBEN IN CHRIST 

five years of efibrt to run it with student labor abandoned 
it as a failure. The school from the beginning, as all 
the schools of the United Brethren Church, admitted both 
sexes to equal privileges in the classes. 

Within a few years after the opening of the school the 
great War of the Rebellion broke out. The effect upon 
the college classes was most decided. So many of the 
students, with two professors, in loyal obedience to their 
country's call, left the recitation room for the camp and 
the front that scarcely a man of military age was left, 
and some of the classes, as to their male members, were 
completely broken up. And, so disastrous were the effects 
of the War upon the attendance at the college that for 
several years its grade was lowered, and its presidents 
were known by the title of principal. 

The successive presidents of Western College, with their 
terms of service, were as follows : Eev. Solomon Weaver, 
1856-64 ; Rev. William Davis, 1864-65 ; M. W. Bartlett, 
A.M. (principal), 1865-67 ; H. R. Page, A.B. (principal), 
fall term, 1867-68 ; E. C. Ebersole, A.M. (principal), 1867- 
68 ; E. B. Kephart, D.D., 1868-81 ; W. M. Beardshear, D.D., 
1881-89 ; J. S. Mills, D.D., Ph.D., 1889-92 ; A. M. Beal, A.M., 
1892-93 ; A. P. Funkhouser, B.S., 1893-94 ; Lewis Book- 
waiter, D.D., 1894 to the present. The faculty at this time 
embraces twelve persons. Those in the regular college 
departments are as follows : Rev. Lewis Bookwalter, D.D., 
president and professor of philosophy ; B. F. McClelland, 
vice-president and professor of English literature and prin- 
cipal of preparatory and normal departments ; Edward L. 
Colebeck, A.M., Latin and Greek languages ; B. A. Sweet, M.S., 
natural science ; Raymond E. Bower, Ph.B., mathematics ; 
Maud Fulkerson, A.M., German and French. Other depart- 
ments, including music, art, commerce, physical culture, 
and so on, such as are usually connected with the best 



COLLEOES AND ACADEMIES 497 

colleges, are fully provided for. The whole number of 
graduates of the college from the beginning is one hun- 
dred and ninety-six. The number of students in attend- 
ance during the year closing June, 1896, was two hundred 
and thirty-five. A very large proportion of the students 
have entered the gospel ministry. Fifty-two of its gradu- 
ates, or over one-fourth of the entire number, not taking 
account of others who have attended the college for shorter 
periods, have been enrolled either as ministers or as 
missionaries. Six of the missionaries of the Church 
now in the foreign field are graduates from this college. 
That so many of its young people should have entered 
the sacred calling speaks volumes for the religious condi- 
tions which have marked the progressive life of the college. 
The religious life is further emphasized by the organization 
of a Young Men's and a Young Women's Christian Asso- 
ciation, each earnest and aggressive in its work. 

The removal of the college from its original location 
to its present most desirable situation was an event of 
the greatest importance to the institution. The first loca- 
tion had long been felt to be an unfortunate one, and a 
desire was widely entertained to secure for it a more 
favorable position. But the removal of a college from 
one place to another is always a difficult undertaking, 
and is seldom attempted. The step was, however, at 
last fully resolved upon, and in the year 1881, a quarter 
of a century from the time of the founding, the transfer 
was made to the beautiful city of Toledo, in the same 
State. Preparatory to this suitable grounds were secured 
and the necessary buildings erected. Eight years subse- 
quent to this time the college was doomed to meet with 
a most serious disaster, quite like that which had befallen 
Otterbein University some years before. On Christmas 
night in 1889 the main building was consumed by fire, 

32 



498 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

all its contents, the library alone excepted, perishing with 
it. Steps were immediately taken for rebuilding, and, 
through the prompt liberality of the people of Toledo and 
the friends of the college elsewhere, the present very hand- 
some edifice soon arose from the ashes of that which was 
destroyed. This building is in extent one hundred and 
fifty feet by eighty, and three stories in height above the 
basement. It is rich in its architectural design. The walls 
are of brick, with stone ornamentation. It is fitted up with 
the most approved methods of heating, and is justly re- 
garded as one of the best college buildings in the State. 
Its large and inviting rooms for the various requirements 
of a college adapt it alike to the needs of teachers and 
students. Other buildings, as the Bright Conservatory of 
Music, Mary Beatty Hall, the boarding hall for young ladies, 
and Drury Hall, the young men's boarding hall, are con- 
nected with the college. The college church, a model of 
architectural excellence, with a seating capacity of a thou- 
sand, is admirably adapted to the requirements of a church 
and Sunday school. The grounds connected with the 
college embrace an area of sixteen acres. The entire prop- 
erty — buildings, grounds, and equipments — is valued at 
about seventy thousand dollars. The conferences now 
cooperating with the college, including the original two, 
are the Iowa, the Des Moines, the Rock River, the Wiscon- 
sin, the Minnesota, and the Colorado. 

The founding and building of Western College, like that 
of most educational institutions when resources are limited, 
called for the exercise of true Christian heroism. The first 
among those to urge the building of a college for the 
Church west of the Mississippi River, was Rev. Solomon 
Weaver, an older brother of Bishop Weaver. Mr. Weaver 
was not only first in the board of trustees, but was also 
elected the first president of the college. Like some others 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 499 

who have gained distinction as college presidents, in our 
own and other denominations, he possessed but a limited 
scholastic education. But he had that which the college, 
whatever it may do in developing, can never supply — the 
original fiber. He had strong native sense, a clear intel- 
lect, and great earnestness of purpose. His views respect- 
ing the establishment of colleges for the Church were much 
in advance of those of most of the ministers and people 
at that time. His work in connection with the founding 
and early progress of Western College accomplished most 
important results for the Church. In 1864 he resigned 
the presidency, and removed to Kansas. He died in 
December, 1874. 

His successor as president of Western College, for a single 
year only, was E,ev. William Davis, earlier of the Miami 
Conference. Mr. Davis was a preacher of great eloquence 
and power, but lacking in the elements requisite for the 
successful management of a college. Before removing to the 
West he had served for a brief period as president of Otter- 
bein University. His memory in the Miami Conference, 
where a part of his ministerial life was passed, is tenderly 
cherished. 

Dr. E. B. Kephart, a graduate of Otterbein University, 
was called to the presidency in 1868. He served for 
thirteen years, when he was elected by the General Con- 
ference of 1881 to the office of bishop. During the period 
of the War the attendance had so far declined that for 
three years the board of trustees had not elected a presi- 
dent. Dr. Kephart inaugurated at once a vigorous admin- 
istration, both in the college and in its general affairs. 
The collegiate work proper was reorganized, and in 1872, 
four years after he became its head, the college graduated 
a class of ten. During the thirteen years of his manage- 
ment seventy young people took their diplomas. 



600 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

In the year 1881, that of the removal, a strong hand 
was needed to guide the affairs of the college, and the 
trustees were fortunate in selecting for its president Rev. 
William M. Beardshear, a graduate of Otterbein University 
and a member of Miami Conference. Dr. Beardshear's 
ability and energy, joined with the impetus and inspiration 
of a relocation in a new and promising field, made his 
eight years of service a signal success. The college 
during this period advanced well to the front, so as to 
gain recognition among the foremost colleges of the State. 

Rev. J. S. Mills — Bishop Mills since May, 1893 — was 
called from the chair of English literature and rhetoric 
in the college to the presidency in 1889, serving in that 
relation until 1892. He had scarcely entered fully upon 
his work when the disastrous Christmas fire swept away 
the main college building, and brought with it the greatest 
inconvenience for faculty and students during the re- 
mainder of the college year, as well as the necessity of 
providing immediately for the erection of a new build- 
ing. The work was undertaken in a heroic spirit, and 
through the liberality and energy of those interested a 
new and more commodious building soon took the place 
of that which had been destroyed. 

During the years immediately following, those in charge 
found it necessary to divide their time between the work 
in the college and attention to the financial situation. 
Prof. A. M. Beal and Rev. A. P. Funkhouser served each 
one year as president. The weakening of the financial 
conditions and the temporary loss of credit made the 
situation embarrassing and the work difficult. 

It was under these circumstances, in 1894, that Lewis 
Bookwalter, D.D., a graduate of the college, who had occu- 
pied the chair of the Latin and Greek languages from 1873 
to 1879, was called to the presidency. Dr. Bookwalter, at 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 501 

that time in the sixth year of the pastorate of the First 
United Brethren Church in Dayton, Ohio, accepted the 
responsibihty, and at once addressed himself with great 
earnestness to the work. Under his direction the faculty 
has been reorganized, the general management placed 
upon a more economic basis, the debt materially reduced, 
and the number of students largely increased. Some 
large donations have been made by men of means, and 
in every way the outlook for the future has become more 
hopeful. 

But to write thus of a college, making mention chiefly 
of the heads of its faculty, and leaving out of view those 
who have borne the principal care of the financial burdens, 
is a grave injustice to some who have rendered eminent 
service in this less conspicuous relation. Among those 
who have served longest and most efliciently in this less 
ornate but equally essential service, may be mentioned 
the Rev. M. S. Drury, father of Prof. A. W. Drury, of 
Union Biblical Seminary, and of Dr. M. R. Drury, of the 
Religious Telescope. Rev. L. H. Bufkin is another who 
has toiled long and laboriously in this often thankless 
yet necessary service. Among others as chief supporters 
and friends of the college may be named Dr. E. R. Smith, 
of Toledo. 

IV. WESTFIELD COLLEGE. 

Westfield College, located at the town of Westfield, 
Illinois, was founded in 1865. It was the larger out- 
growth of an academy which was organized in the same 
place three years before. The Lower and the Upper 
Wabash were the conferences cooperating at the first. 
To these have since been added the Illinois, Central 
Illinois, and Indiana conferences. The first president 
of the college was Rev. Samuel B. Allen, D.D., previously 



502 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

a professor in Otterbein University, the other members of 
the faculty being Professors W. R. Shuey, A.M., W. T. 
Jackson, A.M., Ph.D., W. 0. Tobey, A.M., and Mrs. Rachel 
Tobey, M.A. President Allen died in 1879, after a labori- 
ous service of fourteen years. Professor Tobey was elected 
joint editor of the Religious Telescope in 1873. Dr. 
Allen was succeeded in the presidency by Dr. Lewis 
Bookwalter, now president of Western College, Iowa. He 
served two years, and was succeeded by Dr. I. L. Kep- 
hart, now editor of the Religious Telescope, who served 
five years. After him came Dr. W. H. Klinefelter, who, 
after a service of six years, resigned, in 1895, to return 
to the pastorate. He is now pastor of the Summit Street 
Church, at Dayton, Ohio. He w^as succeeded by Prof. 
B. L. Seneff, A.B., who is the incumbent at the present 
time. 

The college building is pleasantly located in a campus 
of six acres of ground. It is in extent forty by one hun- 
dred feet, with cross extensions forty feet in depth. It is 
of brick, two stories in height, and contains all the requisite 
rooms for the various uses of the college. The incorpo- 
rators and original board of trustees were W. C. Smith, 
A. Helton, D. Ross, S. Mills, H. Elwell, E. R. Connelly, 
D. Evinger, and J. H. Coons. These men, with others 
who have followed, have spent years of laborious toil in 
their efforts to build up this college. The connection of 
Rev. W. C. Smith with the college as trustee, and much 
of the time as agent, has remained unbroken from the 
beginning, with the exception of two years at one time, 
and perhaps no man in the denomination has toiled more 
unremittingly, or with greater devotion and' self-sacrifice, 
in building up any of our institutions, through dark 
days as well as through bright, than he. An embarrassing 
debt, formed long ago, which had remained as a burden 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 503 

upon the college, was recently liquidated, so that the insti- 
tution is now without liability. The value of the property 
— building and grounds — is estimated at about twenty- 
five thousand dollars. 

The faculty at the present time, in all the departments, 
embraces twelve persons ; six of these are in the regular 
academic department, as follows : Rev. B. L. Seneiff, A.B., 
president and professor of mental and moral science ; Rev. 
William R. Shuey, A.M., vice-president, mathematics ; 
A. C. Streich, A.B., Latin and Greek ; Miss Sarah L. 
Newell, Ph. B., English literature, German, and history ; 
W. R. Rhodes, natural science ; C. E. Bigelow, A.M., 
preparatory department. Professor Shuey's connection 
with the college has remained unbroken from the first, 
and for twenty-five years he has occupied the chair of 
mathematics. The college has graduated from the begin- 
ning, from the regular collegiate departments, one hundred 
and twenty-seven students. The attendance during the 
year 1895-96 was one hundred and forty-eight. A number 
of departments, such as are usually found in connection 
with colleges, are well represented, as music, art, business, 
shorthand, typewriting. The courses of study in the regular 
college department are being extended as rapidly as means 
will permit, and the college, now that its embarrassing 
financial condition is relieved, hopes to add steadily to the 
already excellent advantages which it off'ers to the young 
people of the Church. The church membership from 
which it draws its students, as well as material resources, 
numbers about thirty thousand. 

V. LANE UNIVERSITY. 

About the year 1864 a considerable amount of interest 
was awakened among the United Brethren in Kansas on 
the subject of education. This interest was largely stimu- 



504 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

lated by the coming to Kansas of Rev. Solomon Weaver, 
who had been president of Western College. Kansas Con- 
ference at that time included all of the State of Kansas, 
with portions of Nebraska and Missouri. Favorable action 
was taken by the conference looking toward the building 
of a college, and the proposed institution was located at 
the town of Lecompton, situated fifteen miles east of 
Topeka, and fifty miles west of Kansas City, Missouri. 
The college was named Lane University, the name being 
given in honor of James H. Lane, who was one of the 
first United States Senators from Kansas, and a prominent 
and helpful factor in Kansas affairs in that troublous 
period. The cooperating conferences interested in this 
institution are the Kansas, Neosho, and Arkansas Valley. 
Support is derived from Northwest Kansas and Southwest 
Kansas conferences, but they do not directly cooperate. 
The courses of study provided are those usual to colleges, 
such as classical, scientific, literary, normal, and music. 

Rev. Solomon Weaver is regarded as the founder of Lane 
University, and he was its first president. The first faculty 
included the names of Rev. David Shuck and Miss Nettie 
Stickney. The beginning was thus modestly made, in 
harmony with the circumstances then existing. President 
Weaver continued in the service of the college two years. 
His successors were Rev. Daniel Shuck, four years ; N. B. 
Bartlett, eleven years ; L. S. Tohill, one year ; S. B. Ervin, 
D.D., four years ; J. A. Weller, D.D., four years. Dr. C. 
M. Brooke was elected in June, 1891, and continues to the 
present. 

The buildings and grounds of the college are of ample 
proportions. The grounds embrace an area of fifteen acres. 
Thirteen acres are included in the main college campus. 
This land once constituted the grounds for the State capitol, 
and in it were laid the massive foundations for a State 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 505 

building. Before the work had gone further, the capital 
was removed to Topeka, and the State subsequently 
donated this ground to the college. On a portion of this 
foundation the main college building was erected. This 
building is forty-five by seventy-five feet in extent, and 
three stories in height, with basement. The other building 
is sixty-four by fifty-six feet, two stories in height, with 
basement. Both are substantially constructed, and covered 
with iron roofs. In the main building there are six 
recitation rooms, an auditorium, two literary society halls, 
a room for experimental work in chemistry, and one for 
a similar purpose in physics. The other building contains 
library, music, reception, dining, and commercial rooms, 
fifty in all, twenty-four of the number for students. The 
property is valued, at a conservative estimate, at thirty 
thousand dollars. 

The institution was founded originally on the responsi- 
bility of leading members of the Church in Kansas, who 
operated it for a time as a private enterprise in form, but 
really for the Church. This arrangement proving unsatis- 
factory to the membership, the institution, with all that 
pertained to it, was transferred in fee simple to a board 
of trustees elected by the Kansas Conference, thus becom- 
ing the property of the Church. The college has been 
fortunate in avoiding a heavy indebtedness. In 1891, 
when Dr. Brooke took the presidency, the liabilities 
amounted to only a little over twelve thousand dollars. 
This debt has since been reduced to six thousand five 
hundred dollars, with all current expenses paid. Dr. 
Brooke has brought fine tact and energy to the service 
of the college, and his work in building it up in its various 
departments has led to most gratifying results. 

Lane University has gained for itself an honorable 
position among the higher institutions of learning in the 



506 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

State. It belongs to the State association of Kansas col- 
leges, and its president is secretary of that association. 
In issuing certificates to teachers the State Board of 
Education accepts the work done at Lane without question. 
The college has graduated in its higher departments 
sixty-eight students, and from special courses thirty-seven. 
It has an attendance of about two hundred students for 
the current year. 

The faculty for the present year stands as follows : 
Charles Morgan Brooke, A.M., D.D., president and professor 
of philosophy and sociology ; Norman Bruce Bartlett, A.M., 
Ph.D., history and pedagogy ; Joshua Nizely Bank, A.B., 
Greek and Latin ; John Sullivan Brooke, A.M., mathe- 
matics ; Elijah Sheridan Andis, A.B., science ; Gabriel 
Marion Huffman, D.D., biblical history and literature ; 
Martha Wilson, instructor in school of music ; Bishop 
J. W. Hott, D.D., conductor of divinity school ; E. S. Andis, 
school of commerce. 

For a little over thirty years this institution has been 
quietly pursuing its way, offering the advantages of a 
liberal education to the young people of the Church in 
Kansas. It has not yet attained the eminence which its 
projectors and friends had hoped it would gain, but it 
has accomplished an important service to the Church in 
Kansas, and with the continued growth of the Church 
in numbers and strength it has before it the prospect of a 
greatly enlarged future. 

VI. LEBANON VALLEY COLLEGE. 

Lebanon Valley College, one of the early educational 
institutions of the Church, was founded in the year 1866. 
It is located in the town of Annville, Pennsylvania, and 
is in part the outgrowth of the earlier Annville Academy, 
which was founded in 1834. This school was built by 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 507 

private 'enterprise, and became the chief source of educa- 
tion to a large number of men who attained to prominence 
in church and state in eastern Pennsylvania. When it 
became known that the East Pennsylvania Conference 
desired to establish somewhere within its bounds an insti- 
tution of a higher grade, the owners and trustees of 
Annville Academy proposed to transfer that school, with 
all its property, to the conference. Among the gentlemen 
interested in the academy were Mr. Rudolph Herr, Judge 
John H. Kinports, Rev. George A. Mark, Rev. L. W. 
Craumer, Mr. George W. Hooverter, and others. The 
proposition thus made was favorably entertained and 
accepted by the conference, and the property was accord- 
ingly transferred to a duly appointed board of trustees 
in the year 1866. Additional ground was soon after pur- 
chased, necessary new buildings were erected, a faculty 
was provided, and the institution entered upon its new 
career as Lebanon Valley College. A charter, liberal in 
its provisions, was granted it by the legislature of Penn- 
sylvania in the year 1867. At different subsequent times 
the Pennsylvania, East German, Virginia, and Maryland 
conferences became interested with the East Pennsylvania 
Conference in the ownership and support of the college. 
The first faculty of the college consisted of Thomas R. 
Vickroy, Ph.D., John Krumbine, E. Benjamin Bierman, 
A.M., Ph.D., Miss Ellen L. Walker, and Miss Lizzie M. 
Rigler. 

The buildings of this college, three in number, are located 
upon a fine campus of about ten acres, and are together 
valued at about sixty-one thousand dollars. The main 
building is a large brick edifice, provided with college 
chapel, recitation rooms, society halls, reading-room, and 
gymnasium, besides dormitories for young men. A second 
building contains the library, an art room, and music 



508 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

roomSj with the entire department of natural sciences, 
including laboratory and museum. A third building, 
known as the Ladies' Hall, is the home of the young ladies 
attending the institution. The endowment of the institu- 
tion, which it is earnestly desired to augment, amounts 
at the present time to seventy thousand dollars. The 
number of students in attendance during the past year 
was one hundred and forty. The number of its graduates 
up to the present is two hundred and twenty-seven, while 
the number attending its classes since its founding, for 
longer or shorter periods, has reached the ample figure 
of about twenty-five hundred. It is thus apparent that 
the institution has served a generous mission in the work 
of promoting higher education, both in and out of the 
Church. 

The courses of instruction offered are very complete, in 
every way equal to those pertaining to institutions of its 
grade. To these are added post-graduate courses leading 
to the degree of doctor of philosophy. The college library 
contains over five thousand volumes, being supplemented 
by nearly two thousand more in the halls of the literary 
societies. Among the organizations connected with the 
college are Young Men's and Young Women's Christian 
Associations, which exert a healthful influence in the 
Christian development of the young people attending the 
institution. Added to the library is a cabinet representing 
various branches of natural science, as mineralogy, geology, 
and zoology. 

The present faculty embraces nine instructors, with Dr. 
Bierman at the head as president and professor of mental 
and moral science. The others are H. Clay Deaner, A.M., 
in the chair of the Latin language and literature, and 
astronomy ; John E. Lehman, A.M., professor of mathe- 
matics ; Eev. J. A. McDermad, A.M., Greek language and 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 509 

literature ; Oscar Ellis Good, A.M., natural science ; Fannie 
A. Allis, A.B., modern languages and English literature ; 
Carrie M. Flint, instrumental music ; Carrie E. Smith, 
harmony and theory ; Stocks Hammond, Mus. Doc, voice 
culture ; Sadie A. Light, elocution, and Leah C. Hartz, 
stenography and typewriting. The gentlemen who have 
occupied the chair of president of the college since its 
founding are as follows : From 1866 to 1871, Thomas R. 
Vickroy, Ph.D. ; 1871-76, Lucian H. Hammond ; 1876-87, 
D. D. DeLong, D.D. ; 1887-89, Edmund S. Lorenz, A.M. ; 
1889-90, Cyrus J. Kephart, D.D. ; 1890 to the present time, 
Dr. Bierman. 

It is no disparagement to the excellent work done in the 
college, and under the careful management of the gentle- 
men who have preceded Dr. Bierman in the position of 
president, to say that under his administration the college 
has made steady advancement toward better conditions. 
The college work done has been of a high grade. The 
liabilities have been materially reduced, additions to the 
endowment fund have been made, and in general the out- 
look for the college is full of promise for the future. 

VII. PHILOMATH COLLEGE. 

Philomath College, located in the town of Philomath, 
Benton County, Oregon, was chartered in November, 1865, 
and opened its doors for students in September, 1867. It 
is under the auspices of the Oregon Conference. It has 
never attained to large proportions, owing, more than to 
any other cause, to the extreme radicalism which proved 
so troublesome during a long series of years, in several 
portions of the Church, and which nowhere acquired a 
greater intensity than in the Oregon Conference. Never- 
theless, the college, though working under so great disad- 
vantages, has given a better equipment for the battles of 



510 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

life to a very considerable number of students. The town 
of Philomath is essentially a college town, its building 
having chiefly followed that of the college, and the college 
itself giving the name to the town. The college buildings 
are located in a beautiful campus containing eleven acres. 
Besides this an inviting grove of three acres, a half mile 
distant, and situated on the banks of St. Mary's River, is 
owned by the college. On this ground the commence- 
ment and other general exercises are held. The location 
of the college and town is one of the most attractive 
to be found in that State, which abounds so much in the 
picturesque. It is situated in the far-famed Willamette 
Valley, at the foot of the lofty Coast Eange. St. Mary's 
Peak, the highest elevation in the range, is but a few miles 
away, while Mount Jefferson, Mount Hood, and Three 
Sisters are plainly visible. AVith cooling air from the 
mountains on the one side, and the invigorating sea breezes 
from the other, the location is peculiarly fine and healthful. 
The college began its work in a modest way, with but 
two teachers, Joseph Hannon and E. Woodward, at the 
first. Mr. Hannon was succeeded in the following year 
by E. P. Henderson, and Mr. Henderson by James Cham- 
bers, A.M., each serving but a single year. Mr. J. A. 
Biddle, A.B., was head of the school for two years, from 
1870 to 1872, when he was succeeded by J. R. K Sell- 
wood, A.M., one year. Eev. R. E. Wilhams, A.M., fol- 
lowed, 1873-76, when Rev. W. S. Walker succeeded to a 
service of eight years, 1876-84. Others followed : G. A. 
Miller, 1884-86 ; Major Thomas Bell, A.M., 1886-87 ; Rev. 
James C. Keezel, 1887-89; Rev. W. S. Gilbert, A.M., 
1889-93 ; Rev. P. 0. Bonebrake, A.M., 1893-95, and Rev. 
B. E. Emrick, A.B., 1895 to the present. The present 
faculty embraces four persons ; in the college department 
proper. Rev. B. E. Emrick, A.B., and Henry Sheak, M.S. 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 511 

The value of the college buildings and grounds is 
estimated at about ten thousand dollars. There is an 
endowment of five thousand five hundred dollars, bear- 
ing interest at ten per cent., and about an equal amount 
involved in uncertainty. In addition to this, the college 
owns a considerable property in town lots. The Oregon 
Pacific Railroad runs through the college campus, thus 
connecting the place conveniently with the rest of the world. 
This college, as well as the conference in which it is 
located, suffered greatly in the recent agitations preceding 
and following the radical secession. The legal conflict for 
possession of the college has been elsewhere referred to.^ 
With the legal troubles settled, the outlook for both the 
college and Church is brightening. 

VIII. AVALON COLLEGE. 

This institution, at first located at Avalon, Missouri, was 
founded in the year 1869, the supporting conferences being 
the Missouri and Southern Missouri. Like all the colleges 
of the Church it began its career upon a scale of unpre- 
tentious proportions, its faculty at the first consisting of only 
three persons, Rev. M. H. Ambrose, Miss Lizzie Hanby, 
and Miss Frankie McNeil. The school was maintained 
at Avalon until the year 1890, when, to secure better 
advantages of location, it was removed to Trenton, in the 
same State. The removal was effected under the direction 
of President F. A. Z. Kumler, who became the head of the 
institution four years previously, in 1886. The gains made 
by the removal were far larger than simply those of greater 
convenience, the finances of the college being by this step 
immensely improved. Under the wise foresight of Presi- 
dent Kumler a valuable tract of land was secured. This 
was laid out in lots to be sold for the benefit of the college, 

iP. 396. 



512 THE UNITED BBETKBEN IN CHBIST 

and the result was a generous fund for the erection of a 
building, and something further for its permanent endow- 
ment. A well-planned and commodious college building, 
containing thirty rooms, was erected, at a cost of forty 
thousand dollars. The building is heated by steam, lighted 
with electricity, and in every way thoroughly modern in 
its appointments. Its chapel, seated in the most approved 
manner, accommodates six hundred persons. The grounds 
retained for the college campus embrace four acres. 

President Kumler, when assuming the duties of his 
ofEce ten years ago, having become financial director as 
well as president proper, wisely resolved that the school 
must be conducted without incurring debt, and firmly 
held to this purpose. When the college was removed to 
Trenton, he entered the new field without money. But 
with full faith in the wisdom of the change and in the 
working out of his plans, he rented a hall and began 
work. He succeeded in keeping all expenses paid, and 
in two years was ready to present to the Church the 
splendid building which he had erected, a property, with 
the lands pertaining to it, valued at fifty thousand dollars — 
this upon the single condition that the Church make sale 
of lots to the extent of twenty thousand dollars. Writing 
of the result, two years ago. President Kumler said, ''The 
Church has sold the twenty thousand dollars' worth of 
lots, and now the college is free from debt, the only col- 
lege in the Church of which this may be said." He adds 
that about one hundred new houses had been erected 
near the college within two years, and that the future of 
the institution was altogether hopeful. 

The college faculty at the present time embraces twelve 
members, as follows : F. A. Z. Kumler, A.M., president, E. B. 
Cassell, A.M., C. F. Emerick, M.S., A.M., F. E. Washburn, 
A.M., Mrs. F. A. Z. Kumler, L.B., in the college department 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 513 

proper ; in other departments, J. H. Drake, Mrs. E. B. 
Cassell, and H. E. Beals. The whole number of gradu- 
ates from the founding of the college to the present time 
is sixty-two. The amount of its endowment is ten thou- 
sand dollars. 

IX. SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY COLLEGE. 

This institution, located at Woodbridge, California, was 
founded in the year 1879. In 1878 the citizens of Wood- 
bridge and vicinity purchased seven acres of land adjoining 
the place, and erected thereon a commodious school build- 
ing. In the year following the property was transferred 
to the California Conference, and on September 10, 1879, 
the institution was formally dedicated by Bishop Castle. 

On the day following the dedication the school was 
opened for the reception of students, with Prof. D. A. 
Mobley, A.M., as principal and Prof. E. H. Ridenour 
assisting, no college grade being at the first attempted. 
The school grew rapidly in popularity and in the attend- 
ance of students, so that in a few years the trustees felt 
that the time had come for placing it upon a broader 
basis and advancing it to the grade of a college. In 
May, 1883, a new charter was obtained, the institution 
then taking the name of San Joaquin Valley College. 
Meanwhile, there had been added to the faculty Rev. 
W. H. Klinefelter, A.M., later president of Westfield Col- 
lege, Illinois, as professor of natural science, and Rev. 
I. L. Kephart, D.D., also at one time president of Westfield, 
and now editor of the Religious Telescope, as professor of 
mental and moral science. The first class, consisting of 
four members, was graduated in 1885. 

When the school was raised to the grade of a college. 
Professor Mobley was elected president. He continued in 
that relation for eight years, when he resigned, after having 

33 



514 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

been for twelve years the head of the school. Rev. J. G. 
Huber, A.M., was elected his successor, in 1891, and two 
years later, in 1893, was succeeded by W. J. Ham, LL.B. 
Professor Ham resigned in 1895, when Rev. A. L. Cowbell, 
B.D., was elected to succeed him. The faculty at the 
present time consists of A. L. Cowell, president and pro- 
fessor of mental and moral science ; W. J. Ham, professor 
of natural science ; Rev. Theodore A. AValtrip, B.D., pro- 
fessor of history and principal of business department ; 
Miss Ella Jahant, Ph.B., teacher of music. The depart- 
ments of literature and mathematics are for the present 
distributed among other members of the faculty. 

The college offers three full courses of study — classical, 
philosophical, and scientific, each requiring four years, 
with a preparatory course of three years. It has gradu- 
ated fifty-one persons — twenty-eight gentlemen and twenty- 
three ladies. 

The college building is a large two-story edifice, having 
on its second floor a spacious chapel, with a sufficient 
number of other rooms to meet present requirements. 
The college has a well-selected library, a good museum 
and philosophical apparatus, and handsomely furnished 
halls for its literary societies. 

The institution is necessarily dependent in large degree 
upon the people of other denominations, being owned 
by but a single conference of less than a thousand mem- 
bers, and this support comes in generous degree. It is 
apparent that with but one conference to support this 
college, and that conference having but so small a mem- 
bership, it must struggle with unusual difficulty in carrying 
forward its work, and surprise must be felt that it has 
accomplished such results as have been reached, and that, 
instead of a debt of a few thousand dollars, it is not 
actually Overwhelmed with embarrassment. 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 515 

X. UNION COLLEGE. 

The question of founding an institution to meet the 
local educational needs of the United Brethren in West 
Virginia had been under frequent consideration previous 
to the year 1881. A larger emphasis was given to this 
thought by the advent of two young men from Otterbein 
University, Hevs. J. 0. Stevens and L. F. John, who con- 
ducted select schools of short terms in the summer of that 
year in Lewis and Upshur counties, the latter at Buck- 
hannon. The success of these schools attracted the atten- 
tion of some of the members of the Parkersburg Conference, 
among them Dr. Z. Warner, Rev. W. M. Weekley, Rev. 
Columbus Hall, and others. Professor Stevens took super- 
vision of the public schools of Buckhannon from 1881 to 
1883, and gathered about him many of the foremost young 
people of that part of the State. Not having completed 
his course at Otterbein University, he returned there to 
pursue further studies, when he was soon smitten down 
by the hand of death. 

On his retirement from Buckhannon, for a temporary 
period, as was his thought, Professor John took his posi- 
tion, ably assisted by Mrs. Stevens. Under his direction 
the type of the school was changed, making it practically 
a church school, and this character it soon fully assumed. 
In the same year, 1883, ground was broken for a new 
building, and a structure with ample conveniences for the 
uses of an academy was in due time erected. Several 
courses of study, as classical, philosophical, teachers' nor- 
mal, commercial, and musical, were arranged. Apparatus 
was purchased, the nucleus of a library was secured, the 
teaching force was increased, and soon the school was in 
successful operation. 

In June, 1885, Professor John resigned, and Prof. W. 
S. Reese, Ph.M., took the principalship for one year. In 



516 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

1886 Rev. W. 0. Fries, A.M., a graduate of Lebanon 
Valley College, was elected principal. He continued for 
three years, when he was succeeded by Rev. W. 0. Mills, 
A.M., a graduate of Otterbein University. Professor Mills 
has remained at the head of the institution to the present, 
being now in the tenth year of his work. The school has 
until recently borne the name of West Virginia Normal 
and Classical Academy, instead of the larger name of 
college, and, as such, has done most excellent service for 
the young people of West Virginia, both in and out of 
the Church. The annual attendance, as shown by the 
catalogues, has varied between the numbers of one hundred 
and ten and one hundred and fifty. The number of the 
graduates in the literary department is forty-eight. 

For several years past negotiations have been in progress 
with the Methodist Protestant Church in A¥est Virginia 
for a transfer of a half interest in the college to that 
denomination. The two churches are so far alike in 
doctrinal beliefs and all essentials of government that it 
is thought they can cooperate harmoniously in educational 
work. The final details of the union are at this writing 
about completed. 

XI. YORK COLLEGE. 

One of the newest of the colleges of the United Brethren 
Church was opened for the reception of students, at York, 
Nebraska, in August, 1890. This institution, earlier known 
as Gibbon Institute, at Gibbon, Nebraska, is under the care 
of the East Nebraska, West Nebraska, Elkhorn and Dakota, 
and Colorado conferences. It offers the usual courses of 
study pertaining to colleges — classical, scientific, normal, 
commercial, music, art, elocution, and so on. Rev. J. George, 
D.D., became its first president, and continued in that 
relation for several years. Other members of the original 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 517 

faculty were, in the college proper, A. B. Statton, Miss 
Elnora Dickman, Miss Florence Williams, and in the 
adjunct departments, 0. P. Wilson, Mrs. W. E. Morgan, 
and Mrs. E. J. Wightman. The faculty at the present time 
embraces, in all its departments, eleven members. Five of 
these are in the regular collegiate departments : President 
W. S. Reese, Ph.M., higher mathematics and philosophy ; 
Abbie C. Burns, A.M., modern languages and literature ; 
Maud Acton Bradrick, A.B., Greek and Latin ; J. E. Max- 
well, A.M., natural science ; Charles N. Hinds, A.M., history 
and English language. 

The principal college building is an imposing edifice, 
built of brick and stone, four stories in height, including 
the basement. It contains twenty-nine rooms, and is heated 
throughout by steam. Its chapel has seats for about eight 
hundred persons. The corner-stone for this handsome 
structure was laid by Bishop Kephart in June, 1891, and 
the dedicatory services of the completed building were 
conducted by Dr. William M. Beardshear in the following 
year. The grounds embrace about nine acres. The build- 
ing and grounds are valued at about thirty-five thousand 
dollars. An important provision for the permanent 
security of the property in the hands of its original 
owners is found in the fact that it can never be mort- 
gaged. 

The college graduated two students at the end of the 
first four years. The number of students in attendance 
for the past year, in all its departments, was two hundred 
and three. The college is far removed from any other 
institution of the Church, and has a broad field from which 
to derive its students. It has felt, like all our other schools, 
the prevailing monetary stringency, but its friends are 
hopeful, and with an improved financial condition of the 
country it will greatly enlarge its usefulness. 



518 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

XII. SHENANDOAH INSTITUTE. 

In the Virginia Conference there was felt for a number 
of years the need of a school, not aspiring to the propor- 
tions of a college, but an institution of more modest 
pretensions, such as might meet the local requirements 
of the people within the bounds of that conference. Such 
a school was founded at the first by private enterprise, in 
1876, just a little over twenty years ago. In 1884 it 
passed under the direct care and control of the confer- 
ence. The location for the school was chosen at Dayton, 
in Rockingham County, in the beautiful Shenandoah 
Valley, and it was appropriately named for this far- 
famed valley — Shenandoah Institute. Suitable buildings 
were erected, and in the autumn of 1876 the school was 
opened to receive students. Rev. J. N. Fries, A.M., was 
its first principal, with the following associate teachers : 
Rev. A. P. Funkhouser, William Funk, Miss Anna Baer, 
and Miss Ida Funkhouser. The buildings, now three in 
number, two of brick and one a frame, are two stories 
in height, and contain together thirty-three rooms. The 
grounds comprise about two acres. The whole property, 
with its appurtenances, is valued at about ten thousand 
dollars. 

The range of study includes classical, scientific, Eng- 
lish, and commercial courses, with medicine, music, and 
art. The faculty at the present time embraces, for all 
the departments, eight members. The following persons 
have served in the ofiice of principal : Rev. J. N. Fries, 
A.M., 1876-78 and 1883-87; Rev. A. P. Funkhouser, 
1878-81; Rev. W. J. Zuck, 1881-82; Rev. T. H. Son- 
nedecker, 1882-83 ; Rev. George P. Hott, A.M., 1887-96 ; 
Rev. E. U. Hoenshel, 1896 to the present. The annual 
attendance of students approaches one hundred. The 
graduates up to the present, in the regular academic depart- 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 519 

ments, number fifty -one. Thus the school, while not claim- 
ing a more exalted rank than its name implies, succeeds 
in accomplishing a large amount of good, and has proved 
a real blessing to many of the young people of our Church 
in Virginia who would not otherwise have gained the 
advantages of a higher education. 

XIII. EDWARDS ACADEMY. 

Edwards Academy, founded in 1877, was located orig- 
inally at Greenville, Tennessee. Four years later the 
location was changed to White Pine, in the same State. 
The school was named for Bishop Edwards, who took 
much interest in the Tennessee Mission Conference. The 
first principal was S. C. Hanson, who served four years, 
or until the removal to White Pine. The next principal 
was Rev. Lewis Bookwalter, the present head of Western 
College, in Iowa. He served but a single year, when he 
returned to the North. David W. Doran served five years, 
from 1882 to 1887. The inability of the Tennessee Con- 
ference, on account of the smallness of its membership, to 
properly support it, left to the academy but a precarious 
life, and frequent changes in the teaching force continued. 
The recent development of the work in Tennessee, by 
which large accessions have been made to the Church, 
has placed the academy in a greatly improved relation. 
Last year, 1895-96, there was an attendance of about 
one hundred and fifty students ; this number has now 
advanced to over two hundred. With so large an increase 
the accommodations are quite insufficient for the present 
need. Pev. J. D. Droke, A.M., who has recently assumed 
the duties of principal, begins his work greatly encouraged 
with the outlook so far as students are concerned. The 
academy has five teachers : Professor Droke, principal and 
teacher of the ancient languages and sciences ; E. S. 



520 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Vaught, English and mathematics ; Mrs. N. E. Gass, 
primary department. Other departments, as commercial 
and music, are also represented. Apparently the academy, 
while retaining its more modest name, is fairly on the way 
toward attaining the proportions of a respectable college. 

XIV. ERIE CONFERENCE SEMINARY. 

The institution bearing this name is beautifully located 
in the town of Sugar Grove, in Warren County, Pennsyl- 
vania, well toward the north w^estern corner of the State. 
It was opened for the admission of students on September 
1, 1884. Its situation is within the bounds of the Erie 
Conference, and this conference alone is directly interested 
in its support. The purpose of the founding was to pro- 
vide in the nearer home field educational conveniences 
for the young people especially wdthin the bounds of that 
conference and in that section of the State, as also in the 
adjacent territory of western New York. 

The seminary building is a structure of good size, being 
ninety by sixty feet in extent, and three stories in height. 
It is built of brick, trimmed with stone, and has nineteen 
rooms, including a well-furnished chapel. The ground 
is a handsome plat of four acres. The surroundings of the 
town and seminary are picturesque and attractive. The 
property is valued at about twenty-two thousand dollars, 
and the institution is practically w^ithout debt. 

The school began its career w^th a faculty of six in- 
structors. Rev. R. J. White, A.M., being principal. His 
associates in the work, in the various departments, were 
W. W. Prugh, S. C. Hayden, Miss Alice Dickson, E. H. 
Hill, and Mrs. R. J. White. Professor White has remained 
at the head of the institution continuously to the present. 
The school now has seven persons in its faculty. The 
departments of study provided are college preparatory, 



COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES 521 

normal, scientific, music, and so on. The aim is to do 
thorough work in everything that is undertaken, but no 
pretense is made of doing the broader work of a college, 
no promises being held out which the school is not pre- 
pared to meet. 

The seminary is as yet without an endowment, and 
consequently not self-supporting. The annual deficiency, 
however, is made good by its principal founder, so that 
no accumulating debt is permitted to burden the institu- 
tion. Professor White, as the principal of this school, has 
shown most commendable skill, not only in giving direc- 
tion to the department of instruction, but in the control 
of its finances as well. By a wise and economical man- 
agement he has preserved the school from the embarrass- 
ments which have proved so heavy an incubus upon 
most educational institutions. 

The school since its founding has graduated ninety 
young men and women. When to these are added the 
hundreds who have received instruction in its classes 
without going on to graduation, it will be seen that in 
the thirteen years of its existence it has accomplished a 
noble service for the Church. 

XV. OTHER INSTITUTIONS. 

Besides the institutions named in the preceding pages, 
efforts have been made, at various times, and in different 
States, to build up others. They were organized under 
various names, as colleges, seminaries, academies, and 
institutes, but, with the exception of one or two, have 
ceased to exist. Some of them were absorbed by other 
and larger institutions, some were transferred to other 
locations and reorganized under other names, and others 
closed because of insufficient financial support. All of 
them served a useful purpose for a time, and several were 



622 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

continued for a considerable number of years. A few 
of them were chiefly under private control, with confer- 
ence recognition. All of them deserve mention here, as 
indicating the interest of the people in the conferences 
where they were located in the work of building up the 
Church by every proper means, and the sacrifices they 
were ready to make for this end. The institutions referred 
to are as follows : 

Koanoke Seminary, at Eoanoke, Indiana ; Green Hill 
Seminary, at Green Hill, Indiana ; Fostoria Academy, at 
Fostoria, Ohio ; Elroy Institute, at Elroy, Wisconsin ; Dover 
Academy, at Dover, Illinois ; Ontario Academy, in Ontario, 
Dominion of Canada ; Washington Seminary, at Hunts- 
ville. State of Washington ; Sublimity College, Oregon ; 
Central College, Kansas ; Gould College, at Harlan, Kan- 
sas, merged into Lecompton ; Gibbon Institute, at Gibbon, 
Nebraska, moved to York and reorganized as York 
College ; North Manchester College, North Manchester, 
Indiana. 

The Rufus Clark and Wife Training School in Africa 
has been described on page 445. 



CHAPTER VI 

UNION BIBLICAL SEMINARY 
I. THE FOUNDING. 

It is a somewhat remarkable fact that the successors of 
Otterbein, a man of broad and generous learning, should 
have been for a series of years averse to trusting the 
ministry with a liberal education. It was not until nearly 
a third of a century after the death of Otterbein that the 
first movement was made toward establishing an institution 
of learning for the Church, and then twenty-four more 
years passed before steps were taken toward the founding 
of a theological seminary. Meanwhile, some of the more 
wakeful young men sought for an education elsewhere, 
and when United Brethren colleges began to be built a 
considerable number of the graduates who were candidates 
for the ministry sought for a theological education in the 
institutions of other churches. And thus the Church, 
through neglect to provide the means of theological train- 
ing, sustained material loss, since there was a constant 
temptation to young men educated in the schools of other 
denominations to form permanent attachments elsewhere 
than in the old home. 

The General Conference of 1865 took action recommend- 
ing special biblical studies in the colleges, but no speaker 
on the floor of that Conference even suggested that any 
further step be taken. In the General Conference of 1869, 
at Lebanon, Pennsylvania, the Committee on Education 
presented in their report the following resolution : 



524 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

That we recommend to those havmg the care of our institutions 
of learning the propriety of increasing the facilities for biblical 
instruction, especially for the benefit of young men preparing for 
the ministry. 

This proposition was opposed by Rev. H. Garst and Eev. 
W. J. Shuey, of the Miami Conference, on the ground' that 
if adopted it would defeat itself. Mr. Garst held that 
under this recommendation every college in the Church 
would soon be attempting to give theological instruction, 
and that failure must necessarily follow. He expressed 
himself in favor of concentration, and that the conference 
might "give its voice in favor of one or two thorough 
biblical institutions." Mr. Shuey followed with a strong 
speech urging that the time had fully come for the Church 
to take an advance step, and proceed to build and equip 
one thorough theological seminary. He closed by moving 
to send back the resolution to the Committee on Educa- 
tion, with instructions to report to the conference a plan 
for the founding of such an institution, to be under the 
control and direction of the General Conference. In due 
time the committee laid before the conference the following 
resolution : 

Resolved^ That the Board of Education be instructed to devise 
and adopt a plan for the founding of a biblical institute, to be under 
the control of the General Conference; and said board is hereby 
instructed and empowered to take measures to raise funds and locate 
said institution, and to proceed with its establishment as soon as 
practicable. 

The resolution was with great unanimity adopted. 

The Board of Education appointed by this conference 
consisted of Revs. Lewis Davis, D.D., Daniel Shuck, W. C. 
Smith, M. Wright, E. B. Kephart, D. Eberly, S. Weaver, 
P. B. Lee, W. S. Titus, and E. Light. At a meeting of 
this board, held on July 27, 1870, in Dayton, Ohio, it 
was determined to proceed with the work of founding a 



UNION BIBLICAL SEMINARY 525 

theological seminary, as directed by the General Confer- 
ence ; also, that the seminary be located at the city of 
Dayton. It was also decided that the institution should 
be named Union Biblical Seminary. It is a fact well 
remembered that the name "Biblical" was chosen rather 
than "Theological," in deference to the prejudice which 
still existed in some quarters against a "theological" edu- 
cation, or against "preacher factories," as some were pleased 
to call theological seminaries. The prefix "Union" was 
adopted as expressing the fact that the Church through- 
out all its conferences was expected to unite its interest 
in this one theological seminary. It was further deter- 
mined at this session of the board to make an appeal to 
the Church for the sum of one hundred thousand dollars 
for the founding of the school. In choosing the location 
the board was influenced by the belief at that time that 
Dayton presented, all things considered, the greatest num- 
ber of advantages. The reader will notice that no resi- 
dent of Dayton, or of the Miami Conference, was a 
member of the board, and that only one of the number 
resided in the State of Ohio. 

The board met in a second session, again at Dayton, on 
August 2, 1871. It was decided at this meeting that a 
beginning of work be made in the ensuing month of Octo- 
ber. Two professors were elected at this meeting, leaving 
further exigencies to be provided for. Eev. Lewis Davis, 
D.D., president of Otterbein University, Rev. George A. 
Funkhouser, A.B., a graduate of Otterbein, and more 
recently of Western Theological Seminary, at Allegheny, 
Pennsylvania, were the men elected. An executive com- 
mittee was also appointed, consisting of Bishop J. J. Gloss- 
brenner, Dr. L. Davis, and Revs. W. J. Shuey, John Kemp, 
D. K. Flickinger, D. Berger, and Milton Wright. The 
committee soon afterward arranged with Rev. J. P. Landis, 



526 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

A.B., who had just been appointed pastor of the Summit 
Street Church, to do some work in the seminary. In the 
division of the work Dr. Davis took the department of 
systematic and pastoral theology, Professor Funkhouser 
Greek exegesis and biblical and church history, and Mr. 
Landis, who did not then hold in the full sense the rank 
of a professor, taught the Hebrew language and homiletics. 
Bishops Glossbrenner, Weaver, Edwards, and Dickson were 
chosen as a "board of supervision." The day for opening 
as set by the Board of Education was the 11th of October, 
and on this day eleven persons presented themselves as 
students. 

II. GRADUATES. 

Three years after the opening eight persons were gradu- 
ated. From the opening to the present writing, January, 
1897, there have been in attendance at the seminary 
upward of four hundred students. Two hundred and 
four of this number have graduated. Of the graduates 
one hundred and sixty-one are in the Christian ministry, 
three are foreign missionaries, ten are teachers, twenty 
are in other professions, ten have died. Nine others, six 
of them graduates, have been in the foreign field as mis- 
sionaries. Two of the graduates are presidents of colleges, 
two are professors in the seminary, four are professors in 
colleges, one is associate editor of the Religious Telescope, 
one is editor of the Quarterly Review, one is editor of the 
Watchword, six are presiding elders, while many others are 
filling some of the most important pulpits of the Church. 
The work of "the graduates of the seminary is making itself 
widely felt in the increased intelligence, enterprise, and 
activity of the denomination, as also in the higher standard 
of qualification for the pulpit which is gradually being 
demanded by the people. 



UNION BIBLICAL SEMINARY 527 

III. ADMISSION OF WOMEN. 

It is a noteworthy fact, which history should record, 
that in the schedule of rules adopted at the first for the 
government of the seminary there was one which pro- 
vided for the admission of women on the same conditions 
as men to all the privileges of the seminary. The measure 
was opposed by some who were reluctant to see the semi- 
nary taking an anomalous position among institutions of 
its kind, and who held to a modern application of the 
words, "But I suffer not a woman to teach." But the 
wisdom of the provision was vindicated when, some years 
later, young women expecting to become missionaries to 
the foreign field, or workers at home, came knocking at 
the doors of the institution. In many cases wives of stu- 
dents have entered the seminary, taking more or less 
work along with their husbands. Since the founding of 
the school thirty-two women have been admitted to study, 
and eleven have regularly graduated. The results of the 
experiment have been so satisfactory that the question 
of admitting women to the full privilege of the seminary 
courses has ceased to be an open one. 

IV. THE FACULTY. 

Dr. L. Davis continued at the head of the faculty until 
1886, a period of fifteen years, when on account of age 
he was relieved of the duties of a regular chair, and was 
elected emeritus professor and lecturer, which position he 
retained until his death in March, 1890. Dr. Funkhouser, 
on the retirement of Dr. Davis, was elected senior pro- 
fessor, which relation he still sustains. In 1874 Eev. R. 
Wahl, a scholarly German, who had been for some time 
connected with Drew Theological Seminary, was elected 
to the chair of Hebrew exegesis and church history. 
He served one year. In 1875 Rev. George Keister, A.B., 



528 UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

a graduate of Otterbein University and of the School of 
Theology in Boston University, was elected to the chair 
of Hebrew exegesis and biblical history. In May, 1880, 
Professor Keister was elected to the chair of church his- 
tory, and Eev. J. P. Landis, A.M., a graduate of Otterbein 
University and of Lane Theological Seminary, to the chair 
of Hebrew exegesis and pastoral theology. Professor Keis- 
ter died suddenly in August, 1880. Rev. A. W. Drury, a 
graduate of Western College and of Union Biblical Semi- 
nary, was then elected to the chair of church history. In 
May, 1890, J. W. Etter, D.D., a graduate of Lebanon Valley 
College and of Drew Theological Seminary, and at the 
time editor of the United Brethren Quarterly Review, was 
elected to the chair of systematic theology. Two years 
later, on account of failing health, he resigned this position. 
His death occurred in March, 1895. In May, 1893, Rev. 
S. D. Faust, A.M., a graduate of Lebanon Valley College 
and of Union Biblical Seminary, was elected to the then 
vacant chair of church history. The faculty now stands : 
George A. Funkhouser, D.D., LL.D., senior professor, with 
the chair of Greek exegesis and homiletics ; J. P. Landis, 
D.D., Ph.D., professor of Old Testament theology and 
exegesis ; A. W. Drury, D.D., professor of systematic 
theology ; S. D. Faust, D.D., professor of church history ; 
Wilbur C. Kennedy, B.S., professor of elocution and ora- 
tory. 

The fewness of the changes which have occurred in the 
faculty in the quarter of a century of the seminary's 
existence indicates alike the conservative policy which 
has governed the management of the institution and the 
satisfactory character of the work done. Only nine men 
have been professors from the beginning, three of whom 
are deceased. 




John Kemp. 



UNION BIBLICAL SEMINAR Y 529 

V. BUILDING AND FINANCES. 

For a period of eight years the seminary was without 
a building, the rooms of the Summit Street Church being 
used for recitation purposes. In the summer of 1879 the 
present building was erected, at a cost of about twelve 
thousand dollars. The handsome grounds connected with 
the seminary, comprising a tract of about four acres, were 
the generous gift of the late Rev. John Kemp. The land, 
lying within the city, and valued at that time at ten 
thousand dollars, is now surrounded with houses, and is 
at the present time worth several times the above amount. 
Mr. Kemp was one of the warmest friends of the seminary, 
and was for several years its financial manager. 

During the years in which the seminary was without 
a building and without endowment, the current expenses 
were provided for by annual contributions from its friends. 
These gifts, however, were insufficient for the purpose, and 
a heavy debt was in time accumulated. This has recently 
been fully provided for by the raising of a fund of sixty 
thousand dollars. The endowment of the institution, in 
money paid in and secured notes, has reached the grati- 
fying figure of one hundred and twenty-five thousand 
dollars. The seminary property, including the grounds, 
is valued at forty-one thousand dollars, the library at 
three thousand dollars. 

The financial managers of the institution have been Eev. 
John Kemp, Rev. S. M. Hippard, W. J. Pruner, D.D., 
Mr. S. L. Herr, and D. R. Miller, D.D. All these men 
performed good service for the seminary, but it is no 
injustice to any of them to say that Dr. Miller has excelled. 
His term of service began in 1885. His last achievement 
is that of raising, through persistent and wisely directed 
effort, the "silver anniversary" fund of sixty thousand dol- 
lars. The amount was exceeded by one thousand dollars. 

34. 



530 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

The seminary, small in its beginnings, has gradually 
risen to a position of honor. The work it has done has 
already proved a blessing above estimate to the Church, 
and it starts upon its second quarter of a century with rich 
opportunity for future success. Its needs are keeping pace 
with its growth, and doubtless the Lord will raise up 
friends for it to further provide for all exigencies, and so 
augment its power for good. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE BOARD OF EDUCATION 

The General Conference of 1869, which took the initia- 
tory steps toward founding a theological seminary, gave 
further proof of its progressive spirit by creating for the 
Church a general Board of Education. The need of a 
central advisory board which should have a general over- 
sight over the educational work, began to be emphasized 
by several considerations, among them that of the tendency 
toward a too rapid multiplication of colleges. The reader 
has already seen that when once the educational wave was 
started it swept with great force through the Church. 
Under this impulse more colleges were in process of form- 
ing than the church membership justified, or than could 
possibly be financially supported, and it required no pro- 
found foresight to perceive that unless the movement could 
be placed under restraint not many years would pass 
before the Church would have a number of deeply em- 
barrassed colleges. 

But a further purpose in the organization of the Board 
of Education was to secure homogeneity in the work of 
the several colleges of the Church. It was apparent that 
institutions geographically widely separated would soon 
differ widely in character unless some common bond of 
union to hold them in closer relation to each other could 
be devised. It was also provided that reports on the 
condition of the various colleges and other educational 
institutions of the Church should be made quadrennially 
to the General Conference, with such recommendations as 

531 



532 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

the board might see proper to offer. It was not deemed 
necessary to place extended financial responsibility with 
the board, since the boards of trustees of the various 
institutions have control of the department of finance for 
their schools respectively. The board is instructed, how- 
ever, to provide and manage a loan fund for the benefit 
of students needing aid in pursuing their course in col- 
lege or the theological seminary. The board consists of 
twelve members, six of whom are required by the Dis- 
cipline to be ministers, and six of whom may be laymen. 
The service of the board in unifying and promoting 
the general educational work of the Church has attained 
a greater value than is generally perceived. Some of the 
quadrennial reports to the General Conference have been 
extended discussions of the general field of higher edu- 
cation, and ought to have a wide reading among the 
people of the Church. The board holds its meetings 
annually. 



CHAPTER VIII 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK 
I. A VIEW OF THE EARLIER WORK. 

It will probably remain always impossible to determine 
when the first distinctively United Brethren Sunday school 
was organized. Most of the early Sunday schools in 
America, and in England as well, were not conducted 
under denominational auspices. The American Sunday- 
School Union, organized in 1824, consisting of represen- 
tatives of various denominations, was for many years the 
dominating organized agency in the American Sunday- 
school work, and under its influence, and by the direct 
activities of its Sunday-school missionaries, the early schools 
of the country were widely conducted on the union plan. 
The union is still a strong organization, and is performing 
a large work in the Sunday-school field, but with the later 
rapid growth of the denominational agencies the place 
of the union holds a diminished relation. The earliest 
Sunday-school union formed in America was organized 
in Philadelphia in 1791, under the name of "First-Day 
or Sunday-School Society." The date of its organization 
was twelve years before the first Sunday school was 
organized in the city of New York. The New York 
Sunday-School Union was organized in 1816, and the 
Massachusetts Sunday-School Union in 1825. Several 
other unions were organized, generally of a local character. 
In Great Britain, the early home of the modern Sunday 
school, the London Sunday-School Society was organ- 

533 



534 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

ized in September, 1795, under the management of an 
equal number of Churchmen and Dissenters. This was 
succeeded in July, 1803, by the London Sunday-School 
Union, which continues to hold in the work in England 
the relatively prominent position once held by the American 
Sunday-School Union in the United States. In distinc- 
tively denominational work the Methodist Episcopal Church 
was early in the field in the United States, its Sunday- 
school union having been organized in 1827. The Con- 
gregational Church followed in 1832. The admirable 
Sunday-school organization of the United Brethren Church, 
which has done so much to quicken interest and activity 
in the Sunday-school work, was deferred to a time over 
thirty years after the later one of these dates, but the dis- 
tinct denominational schools were everywhere familiar long 
before. The Church in its earlier years, as has been seen 
in these pages, w^as disinclined to gather up statistics, and 
even records were often not carefully preserved. 

To say that Sunday schools were to any considerable 
extent organized from early dates, would be to assume 
what was not generally true among the Christian denomi- 
nations. But there are evidences that religious education 
of the children received early attention, and the Sunday 
schools seem to have sprung up as they did among the 
people of other churches. Mr. Otterbein, in his own 
church in Baltimore, seems to have preserved the meth- 
ods familiar to him earlier in the Eeformed Church. In 
the schedule of rules drawn up by him in 1785 for the 
government of the pastors and people of that church 
he placed this among the duties of the pastors: "The 
preacher shall make it one of his highest duties to watch 
over the rising youth, diligently instructing them in the 
principles of religion, according to the Word of God. He 
should catechise them once a week ; and the more mature 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK 535 

in years, who have obtained a knowledge of the great 
truths of the gospel, should be impressed with the 
importance of striving, through divine grace, to become 
worthy recipients of the holy sacrament. And, in view 
of church membership, such as manifest a desire to this 
end should be thoroughly instructed for a time, be 
examined in the presence of their parents and the vestry, 
and, if approved, after the preparation sermon, they should 
be presented before the church and admitted." Dr. Drury, 
who has made a very careful study of Otterbein's life and 
times, in speaking of Mr. Otterbein's frequent visits to 
different places in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, 
says that "even before 1800 he established Sunday schools 
and prayer-meetings in connection with these extended 
labors."^ There is little probability that these Sunday 
schools possessed to any marked degree the characteristics 
of the Sunday school of the present time. But this remark 
would apply equally to the Robert Raikes and many other 
schools of that period. The object seems to have been 
definite religious teaching for the young, without organi- 
zation into classes, the ministers or teachers using such 
skill in the work as they possessed. About this same 
time J. G. Pfrimmer was engaged in similar work of 
teaching the children, as is indicated in an entry in 
Newcomer's Journal, dated May 21, 1800. "To-day," he 
says, "I came to Brother Pfrimmer's. About thirty chil- 
dren had assembled at his house, to whom he was giving 
religious instruction. Some were under conviction. I also 
spoke to them. Their hearts were sensibly touched. May 
the Lord convert them truly." ^ 

There is no evidence now available that these schools 
continued through to the period when the more modern 
form of the Sunday school became common. But there are 

1 Life of Otterbein, p. 248. « Newcomer's Journal, p. 67. 



536 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

evidences that some schools of a later type were established 
at early dates. One of these was organized in Otterbein's 
church in Baltimore. Of this Col. Robert Cowden, general 
Sunday-school secretary for the United Brethren Church, 
in an article in the Quarterly Review for April, 1893, says : 
"The first United Brethren Sunday school in Baltimore 
was established in the old Otterbein Church in 1827. Rev. 
William Numsen, a man prominent in business as in 
religious circles in Baltimore, the last known charter 
member of that school, then a pupil, but afterward for 
many years superintendent, died but recently at the age 
of ninety years. From his lips Brother Jacob Kuipp, of 
Baltimore, a later member of the same school, obtained 
many very interesting facts about the original organization 
of that school, which he gave to the readers of the 
Telescope a few years ago." Another school, preceding by 
several years that in Baltimore, was organized in a United 
Brethren church near Cory don, Indiana, its date being 
1820. 

The General Conference of 1837 was the first to take 
official recognition of the duty of the ministry to instruct 
the children in the knowledge of Christ. The clause 
enforcing this duty is a very earnest exj)ression, but Sun- 
day schools as such are not mentioned. The same is true 
of the succeeding General Conferences uj) to 1849. In 
the Book of Discipline as revised by this conference there 
is a distinct and strong utterance. The conference said : 

Whereas, The Sabbath-school institution is in every way worthy 
of our highest regard and untiring efforts to promote as a branch 
of the Christian church ; therefore, 

Resolved^ That we labor to haA^e Sabbath schools organized 
throughout the Church. 

Resolved^ That all our ministers, both itinerant and otherwise, 
do all consistently in their power to organize Sabbath schools in 
our societies wherever practicable. 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK 537 

Besolved^ That our Printing Establishment furnish the Church, 
as soon as practicable, with books of suitable character for Sabbath 
schools. 

This was an expression so vigorous and direct as to 
seem in tone quite modern. The conference of 1853, how- 
ever, went quite beyond this, and placed upon the ministers 
about every duty that is now laid down. It required that 
they preach each year at each appointment a sermon on 
the importance of the Sunday-school work, that they use 
all proper means to organize schools and collect funds 
for the purchase of libraries, and collect and report to the 
annual conference full statistics pertaining to the schools. 
All this meant indeed a very effective organization of the 
work. A further step in 1857 was to connect the Sunday 
schools of the Church with the Home, Frontier, and 
Foreign Missionary Society, and to provide for weekly 
collections for the society. 

II. A GENERAL ORGANIZATION. 

Notwithstanding the lateness of the General Conference 
in taking official action relating to this department of work, 
the work itself was going right on. Many of the ministers 
and teachers were interested, and schools were being 
organized and instruction was being conducted after the 
methods of that time. But the time for advanced action 
came at last. In May, 1865, Rev. Isaac Crouse, of the 
Sandusky Annual Conference, presented to the General 
Conference, at AVestern, Iowa, a carefully laid plan for a 
general organization of the Sunday-school work of the 
Church. The organization was called the "Sabbath-School 
Association of the United Brethren Church." The con- 
stitution and rules, or by-laws, as arranged by Mr. Crouse, 
provided for a general superintendent, a secretary, a treas- 
urer, and a publication committee, and included plans for 



538 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

raising funds for book publication purposes and for assist- 
ing needy schools, and for organizing distinctively United 
Brethren schools. The whole paper was adopted, with 
scarcely a suggestion of amendment, and Mr. Grouse was 
himself immediately chosen to the office of general secre- 
tary. Rev. W. J. Shuey was elected general superintendent, 
and Mr. J. B. King treasurer. The latter, resigning soon 
afterward, was succeeded by Rev. Solomon Vonnieda. Each 
of these men continued in office twelve years. In 1869, 
after an experience of four years, the constitution of the 
association was materially changed, since which time it 
has remained substantially the same. 

This forward step grew rapidly in favor with the people, 
and after a few years funds came liberally into the treasury. 
One-fourth of these, under the earlier provisions of the 
constitution, might be devoted to book publication, and 
in 1874 this work was begun. The Pioneer Library, con- 
sisting of ten volumes, was first issued, and further work 
was undertaken ; but the sales not being sufficient to 
justify publication, this feature of the work was discon- 
tinued. Three-fourths of the money thus contributed was 
appropriated for Sunday-school supplies for needy schools. 

The Chautauqua Assembly movement, organized in 
1874, which at first contemplated the better equipment 
of Sunday-school teachers for their work, attracted from 
the beginning the favorable attention of teachers in the 
United Brethren Church, and some of them received their 
diplomas with the first classes graduating from its depart- 
ment of normal instruction. In 1886 the Sunday-School 
Board, believing that a larger number of our teachers 
could be enlisted through a denominational organization, 
formed the Bible Normal Union. The board was not 
mistaken in this. The number taking the courses of les- 
sons was greatly increased. The courses were substantially 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK 539 

the same, and by arrangement with the Chautauqua 
authorities teachers completing the Bible Normal Union 
course were entitled to receive the Chautauqua normal 
diploma, as well as the handsome diploma awarded by 
our own board. 

From 1877 Col. Robert Cowden, who had been elected 
by the General Conference as general secretary, was 
employed by the board to give all his time to the 
Sunday-school work. Much attention was given by him 
to holding Sunday-school institutes, assisting in Sunday- 
school conventions, and delivering addresses on various 
phases of the work. These labors, extended widely through 
the Church, proved highly useful in helping to stimulate 
teachers to higher ambitions in seeking for better qualifi- 
cations and for larger results from their work. Several 
assemblies on a larger scale were attempted, but these 
proving financially unsuccessful, efforts in that direction 
were abandoned. 

In 1881 a Home Reading Circle was organized, upon 
the general plan of the Chautauqua Literary and Scien- 
tific Circle. This was done in the belief that success 
would attend it similar to that reached by the Bible 
Normal Union. This hope was disappointed, and, after 
six years of trial, it was abandoned, and our people 
were counseled to cooperate with the Chautauqua Read- 
ing Circle. 

A better experiment was tried when it was decided, in 
1890, to offer questions on the International lessons. The 
arrangement has met with wide favor, and the results 
are highly satisfactory to those who have taken the exam- 
inations. 

The Home Department for the study of the Sunday- 
school lessons has received favorable attention among 
our people, and numerous successful classes have been 



540 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

organized. Considerable numbers of persons who cannot 
attend the schools are thus brought into living touch 
with them, and receive many of the benefits the school 
itself bestows. 

The publication of Sunday-school literature, such as 
lesson helps, song-books, and other supplies, does not come 
under the direction of the Sunday-School Board, but has 
from the first been a part of the business of the general 
Publishing House. These forms of literature, already 
spoken of in these pages, have uniformly met wdth hearty 
acceptance by the people of our Sunday schools and 
Church, as well as among people of other denominations, 
their circulation being larger than our schools could use. 
They are prepared in the English and German languages. 

The United Brethren Church has kept in close touch 
with the great union movements of the Sunday-school 
world. When the International Lesson system was inau- 
gurated in June, 1872, to begin its first lesson course with 
January, 1873, our Publishing House began at once the 
preparation for it, and issued its first lessons with the 
beginning of the course. Our Church has had a repre- 
sentative on the International Lesson Committee since 
1884, Bishop Kephart being the representative since June, 
1896. Colonel Cowden, our Sunday-school secretar}^ was 
for fifteen years a member of the International Executive 
Committee. 

The activity of our people in the Sunday school is 
perhaps fairly indicated by the annual statistics. In the 
Year-book for 1897, the statistics for 1896 show an enroll- 
ment of officers, teachers, and scholars, of 290,861. The 
membership of the Church as reported for the same year 
is 238,782, the Sunday-school enrollment being in excess 
52,079. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S CHRISTIAN UNION 

I. ORGANIZATION. 

The nineteenth century has become noted for its pro- 
duction and development of the great organized agencies 
which have given such vast impulse to the advance of 
Christianity. Among these are the great Bible societies, 
American and foreign, the numerous home and foreign 
missionary societies, American and European, the phe- 
nomenal expansion of the Sunday-school work, the found- 
ing of great Christian publishing houses, denominational 
and undenominational, the building up of distinctively 
Christian institutions of learning, the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association, the Woman's Christian Association, the 
Young Women's Christian Association, and the National and 
the International Woman's Christian Temperance Union. 
Some of these agencies lap over a little way into the 
preceding century, but their great development belongs 
to the century now nearing its close. In these respects 
the activities of the Christian church have fully kept 
pace with the expansion in other fields of progress, as 
in discovery, invention, and the application of scientific 
principles to the various industries. 

It was reserved for the latter part of the century to give 
birth and development to one of the most remarkable 
of all the Christian agencies, known by the comprehensive 
name, "the young people's movement." This movement 
sprang up here and there in sporadic organizations, with- 

541 



542 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

out connection with organizations of a like kind. Among 
these was one formed as early as 1867, in Dr. Theodore 
L. Cuyler's church in Brooklyn, called a "Young People's 
Association," and embodying some of the principal features 
now pertaining to the movement. Only a little later, in 
the year 1871, a similar organization was formed in the 
First United Brethren Church, in Dayton, Ohio. This 
was at first an association for young men only, but a few 
years later it was broadened in its character so as to era- 
brace also young women. The organization thus founded 
became the pioneer of many similar organizations through- 
out the Church. In various other churches organizations 
of a like kind were formed. 

As the years passed, the time came when these numerous 
societies and others in process of forming were to be gath- 
ered together into a great national organization, as the 
Sunday schools of the nation and of the world have 
found a common bond in the international movement. 
For this end the Lord was pleased to raise up Dr. Francis 
E. Clark, of Portland, Maine. He organized in his church 
a society of young people, without any thought at the first 
that the work in his local congregation should presently 
become the means of giving an impetus to a movement 
that should become so vast in its extent. This local organ- 
ization was called the "Young People's Society of Christian 
Endeavor." It has several special characteristics. Its aim 
was distinctly Christian. It required a pledge of definite 
service. It appointed stated meetings for consecration, and 
it divided its work among special committees. An account 
of the society appeared in a religious newspaper, and 
through this other churches were led to adopt the same 
plan. Thus in a short time the societies multiplied 
among the different denominations, and these were after- 
ward gathered together under a common bond, and known 



THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S CHRISTIAN UNION 543 

by the name at first given to the society in Dr. Clark's 
church. Dr. Clark was chosen as president of the united 
movement, and probably no wiser choice could have been 
made. 

But meanwhile there were those in the various denomi- 
nations who were persuaded that their young people could 
be best instructed, and their denominational loyalty best 
preserved, by the organization of unions under their own 
care and direction. And among several of the great 
denominations such unions have been formed, as the 
Epworth League of the Methodist churches, the Baptist 
Young People's Christian Union, and so on. In the United 
Brethren Church the local societies were at first gathered 
under conference direction. In the Allegheny Conference, 
for example, representatives of a number of societies organ- 
ized a Young People's Christian Association, in 1887, 
which in the following year became a conference organiza- 
tion. In 1889 a similar organization was effected in the 
East Pennsylvania Conference, and in the same year the 
Miami Conference Young People's Christian Union was 
organized. All of these were organized substantially upon 
the plan which was soon after adopted for the whole 
Church. 

The United Brethren Ministerial Association of Dayton, 
Ohio, in its monthly meeting in April, 1890, had for a 
topic, "Should We Have a General Organization of the 
Young People's Societies in Our Church?" It was formally 
discussed by Prof. J. P. Landis, D.D., and M. R. Drury, 
D.D. Dr. Drury read a carefully prepared paper on the 
subject, in which he recommended the organization of the 
young people of the denomination. The association ap- 
pointed Revs. M. R. Drury, J. P. Landis, and W. A. Dick- 
son a committee to secure the indorsement of the bishops 
and to issue a call for a convention. The call, after reciting 



544 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

the belief that the time had come for holding a convention 
of representatives and friends of the young people's socie- 
ties throughout the United Brethren Church to organize 
a young people's Christian society for the denomination 
in harmony with its spirit and methods of work, and that 
the holding of a convention, affording opportunities for 
the cultivation of a closer feeling of sympathy among the 
young people, would awaken a broader Christian enthusi- 
asm, invited "all young people's societies in the Church, 
of whatever kind, to send delegates to a general conven- 
tion to be held in Dayton, Ohio, June 4 and 5, 1890, in 
the First United Brethren Church." All churches friendly 
to the movement were also asked to elect and send repre- 
sentatives to the convention. 

The convention met as called, and w^as attended by about 
two hundred delegates, representing societies and churches 
in nine different States and fourteen annual conferences. 
Representatives of every department of church work were 
present to give approval, and the convention was charac- 
terized by genuine enthusiasm. Prof. J. P. Landis was 
chosen temporary chairman, and Mr. E. W. Punkle tem- 
porary secretary. 

The representatives who constituted the convention were 
unanimous in their opinion that there should be a general 
union of the young people's societies of the denomination, 
but they were divided as to w^hat should be the name and 
character of the local society. Some favored the adoption 
of the Christian Endeavor society as the only form for 
local organizations, while others advocated a distinct de- 
nominational plan and name. After much discussion, the 
Committee on Plan of Organization, consisting of Mr! E. L. 
Shuey, Pev. H. F. Shupe, Pev. L. B. Hix, Mr. W. 0. Appen- 
zellar, Pev. E. S. Lorenz, Pev. W. 0. Fries, and Mr. L. A. 
Buchner, was appointed. This committee reported the name 



THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S CHRISTIAN UNION 545 

and plan of the "Young People's Christian Union." In 
keeping with the name and spirit of the United Brethren 
in Christ, mutual concessions of opinions were made, and 
the plan adopted left to the local church the choice of 
the form and name for the local societies. This was unani- 
mously adopted with rejoicing, and the whole plan was 
received by the Church with unanimity and enthusiasm. 

The constitution provides for a general union of all 
Christian young people's societies in the United Brethren 
Church to be under the direction of general officers and 
an executive council. The object of the union is "to unite 
the young people's Christian societies of the entire Church, 
of whatever name, for mutual helpfulness, for stimulating 
church loyalty and an intelligent interest in the various 
church enterprises, and for the organization and extension 
of the young people's Christian societies within the 
Church." An organization of similar character called a 
branch union is provided for each annual conference. 
Conventions of the general union are held biennially, and 
of the branch unions, annually. 

The officers of the union elected at the time of its 
organization were : President, Dr. J. P. Landis ; vice- 
presidents (one for each bishop's district), W. 0. Appen- 
zellar. Rev. W. 0. Fries, Rev. L. B. Hix, Rev. M. R. 
Meyer, Prof. J. A. Sollinger ; corresponding secretary, Rev. 
W. A. Dickson ; recording secretary. Prof. U. D. Runkle ; 
treasurer, Mrs. R. L. Swain ; executive committee. Prof. 
J. P. Landis, Rev. W. A. Dickson, E. L. Shuey, Rev. H. F. 
Shupe, and Rev. A. E. Davis. 

The executive committee arranged with the editors of 
the Religious Telescope to have a department devoted to 
the Young People's Christian Union, and Dr. M. R. 
Drury was elected editor. Topics for the young peo- 
ple's prayer-meetings and a badge were provided, and 

35 



546 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

leaflets were issued. Societies were at once organized 
throughout the Church, and at the annual conferences 
succeeding the convention a number of branch unions were 
organized. The first report of the corresponding secretary, 
January 1, 1891, showed eighty-seven societies enrolled 
and nine branch unions. 

II. PROGRESS AND WORK. 

Early in 1892 the executive committee asked the 
societies to make an offering for the missionary work, 
and in conjunction with the missionary board selected Los 
Angeles, California, as the place for establishing a church. 
It also designated the last Sunday in May of that year 
as an anniversary day, or young people's day, to be 
observed with special services and an ofl'ering for the Los 
Angeles mission. At that anniversary the corresponding 
secretary reported two hundred and ninety-five societies. 
Sixteen branch unions had been organized, some of which 
had held branch conventions. 

The second general convention was held at Gallon, Ohio, 
June 1 and 2, 1892. It was attended by about two hun- 
dred delegates, representing eight States and seventeen 
conferences. The number of societies reported was 448, 
with about 22,500 members. Twenty branch unions had 
been organized. The treasurer reported $1,359.45 received, 
of which $806.36 was for the Los Angeles fund. At this 
convention a few verbal changes in the constitution were 
made. 

When the General Conference of 1893 met, the union 
numbered 559 societies, with 23,193 members, and a 
memorial was presented, asking recognition as a depart- 
ment of the Church. The need of a young people's paper 
to be the organ of the union was also felt, and the General 
Conference was memorialized to provide it. Both requests 



THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S CHRISTIAN UNION 547 

were granted. The Young People's Christian Union was 
made a department of the Church by giving it a place in 
the Discipline and by constituting the president of the local 
young people's society a member of the quarterly confer- 
ence. The publication of a paper was authorized to "repre- 
sent specifically the work of the Young People's Christian 
Union," and Rev. H. F. Shupe was elected editor. The 
paper was named the Young People^ s Watchword, and the 
first number was issued September 2, 1893. The con- 
stitution was so changed as to make the executive com- 
mittee consist of nine members, including the president 
and corresponding secretary, four of whom are elected by 
the General Conference. The General Conference elected 
Mrs. L. R. Keister, Rev. W. A. Dickson, Rev. M. R. Drury, 
and Miss Estelle Krohn. Immediately after the General 
Conference Rev. W. A. Dickson resigned as corresponding 
secretary, and the editor of the young people's paper was 
elected to that office. 

The general convention of 1894 was held at Elkhart, 
Indiana, June 21-24. An attendance of eight hundred 
people from fifteen States and thirty-three conferences, 
including some of the leaders of the Church, made it the 
largest and most representative gathering ever held in the 
Church. At this convention thirty-three branch organiza- 
tions were reported, and the number of societies was 1,062, 
including forty-nine Junior societies. The number of mem- 
bers was 48,615, including 2,099 Juniors. The receipts for 
the two preceding years were $2,408.63. Of this amount 
$1,994.54 was for the Los Angeles mission, $278.23 having 
been given during a week of self-denial. The receipts from 
society dues was $413.59. At this convention the Young 
People's Reading Course was adopted. This provides for 
the reading of a number of selected books and of special 
study course papers in the Watchword, on the completion 



548 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

of which certificates are granted to the readers. The con- 
vention also pledged to raise the sum of five thousand 
dollars for building a church at Los Angeles. The fifth 
anniversary, in May, 1895, showed the continued growth 
of the union, there being 1,400 societies and 58,000 
members. 

The fourth general convention w^as held June 17-21, 
1896, at Des Moines, Iowa. It was a great representa- 
tive convocation — spiritual, missionary, educational, and 
churchly in spirit. The union had grown to 1,763 socie- 
ties, including 186 Junior societies, and 70,374 members, 
including 6,433 Juniors. The branch unions numbered 
forty-five. During the two preceding years $808.16 had 
been paid as dues and $3,293.22 for Los Angeles. Among 
the new lines of work adopted were the Christian-steward- 
ship idea and the college committees. The officers elected 
were : President, J. P. Landis ; vice-presidents, W. L. Rich- 
ardson, William Williamson, A. B. Statton, W. E. Schell, 
J. S. Pitman ; corresponding secretary, H. F. Shupe ; re- 
cording secretary, Lizzie Sheets ; treasurer, Z. W. Barnard ; 
executive council, E. L. Shuey, W. 0. Fries, and George 
Miller. 

The statistics of the union January 1, 1897, were : 
Societies, 1,612 ; Junior societies, 208 ; total, 1,820. Mem- 
bers, 64,872 ; Junior members, 8,119 ; total, 72,991. 

Although less than seven years have passed since the 
organization of the union, its advantages have become 
so apparent that it meets with universal favor. As a 
means of assisting young people in entering into the 
proper activities of Christian life, the association is above 
estimate. 



CHAPTER X 

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE CHURCH 

One of the more recent boards created by the General 
Conference is that of trustees in general for the property 
of the United Brethren Church as a whole. This board 
was formed by the conference of 1889. The intent and 
scope of the board are indicated in the paper adopted 
by the General Conference providing for its organization. 
This paper was a part of a general report from the Com- 
mittee on Church Incorporation, of which Eev. D. R. Miller 
was chairman : 

Your coininittee fails to find any statutory provision for the 
incorporation of the Church in its entirety ; but that legal recogni- 
tion and protection of the General Conference and its property may 
be secured by the election and incorporation of a Board of Trustees 
for the conference. We therefore recommend : 

That the General Conference elect for and in behalf of itself a 
Board of Trustees consisting of twelve persons, who shall hold their 
office for four years, or until their successors are elected, who are 
hereby authorized and directed to secure the needed articles of 
incorporation at the earliest moment after the adjournment of the 
conference. 

This paper was approved by the General Conference, and 
the Board of Trustees as provided for was elected. One 
of the objects for which this board exists is to receive such 
money or other property as may come to the Church by 
bequest or otherwise, without definite provision as to the 
purpose contemplated by the donors, or the naming of 
the board of trustees or other persons to whose care the 
bequests are to be intrusted. The powers of the board 
do not in any way conflict with the rights and powers 

549 



550 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

of any other boards of the Church, either general or local. 
The board as elected by the conference of 1889 consisted 
of the following persons : Eev. D. R. Miller, B. F. Witt, 
Judge J. A. Shauck, Rev. William McKee, Rev. W. J. 
Shuey, Rev. B. F. Booth, Bishop N. Castle, Bishop J. 
Dickson, Bishop E. B. Kephart, Rev. J. L. Luttrell, John 
Dodds, and Bishop J. Weaver. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

The desirableness of organizing a general Historical 
Society for the Church became apparent some years ago. 
A meeting for the purpose of considering the question 
of such an organization was called at Dayton, in May, 
1885. After some discussion it was decided that such 
a society be formed, and a constitution for its govern- 
ment was adopted. A board of officers was then elected, 
as provided for in the constitution, and the society was 
ready to assume its place as an established fact. Bishop 
Kephart was elected president, and has remained in that 
office since. 

Among the objects of the society is that of collecting 
and preserving papers, records, books, and other materials 
bearing on the history of the Church. Of these it has 
made a considerable accumulation. It has also gathered 
relics of interest to quite an extent. Among the latter 
are Otterbein's clock, table, and chairs ; also specimens 
of his handwriting. 

The library and museum of the society occupy a room 
in the Publishing House, at Dayton, and its most valu- 
able records and manuscripts are stored in the fire-proof 
vaults of the House. 

A valuable service is rendered to the Church in the stim- 
ulus which the society inspires in historical studies. One 
of the results attained in this field is the publication of the 
early Disciplines of the Church, from 1814 to 1841, with 

551 



552 THE ryiTED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

strictly literal renderings into English of those which were 
originally in German. The work of translation was accom- 
plished by Professor Drury, of the theological seminary. 
Action was also taken by the society toward producing, in 
conjunction with the Publishing House, similar translations 
of the early minutes of the conferences of the Church. 
The funds of the society have not thus far justified any 
very expensive work, but the beginning of a highly im- 
portant department of work for the Church has been 
established. The society is under regular recognition by 
the General Conference and in the Book of Discipline, 
and quadrennial reports are required to be made to the 
General Conference. The meetings of the society are 
held annually, in May. 



PART 111 

THE ANNUAL CONFERENCES 



PART III 

THE ANNUAL CONFERENCES 

CHAPTER I 

A GROUP OF EARLY CONFERENCES 

I. THE ORIGINAL CONFERENCE. 

The reader has seen in these pages some account of the 
rise and growth of the old historic conference of the Church, 
from its initial meeting in Otterbein's parsonage, in 1789, 
up to the time of the first General Conference, in 1815, 
It has become customary to speak of this as the original 
conference, to distinguish it from other conferences, the 
body itself not having taken any other name than simply 
the Conference until after other conferences began to be 
formed, when its official name became the Hagerstown 
District or Conference. The reader will also remember 
that after two sessions, those of 1789 and 1791, no other 
formal assembling was held until the year 1800. From 
that time forward regular annual sessions were held, and 
these up to 1815 have been referred to. From the meager 
records of these sittings, as well as from other sources, we 
learn that their work was steadily extending, not only in 
the regions where it originated, but to the westward, espe- 
cially in western Pennsylvania and into the new State 
of Ohio, which had just then been admitted to a place 
among the States of the Union. But from the brief 
memoranda left us enough is gathered to give us a 
strongly defined picture of the life and activities of those 

555 



556 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

times. Many of the names of the actors remain, and the 
work they succeeded in achieving stands out with great 
distinctness from a field over which the deepening mists 
of time have gathered. Brave and true men were they, 
toihng under many disadvantages, but laying with patience 
the foundations for the goodly temple which their suc- 
cessors have reared. 

The time came by and by when, on account of the 
great extent of territory occupied, it became impracticable 
for all the ministers to meet in one assembly, and other 
conferences, daughters of this goodly conference of the 
East, must be formed. The first of these was organized 
at what was then a long distance from the meeting places 
of the old conference. 

II. THE MIAMI CONFERENCE. 

The second conference of the United Brethren Church, 
formed in the year 1810, hardly so much by separation 
from the original conference as by semi-independent origin, 
was the Miami. Of the growth of the Church westward, 
leading to the formation of this conference, of the time 
and place of organization, and number of ministers pres- 
ent, with a list of their names, and of the several sessions 
leading up to the General Conference of 1815, mention 
has already been made.^ Of its action in memorializing 
Bishop Otterbein to ordain one or more preachers, who 
might be able to ordain others also, and of its offices in 
bringing about the assembling of the first General Con- 
ference, mention has also been made. The conference 
began soon after its organization to assume a position 
of importance in the affairs of the Church. The original 
area embraced by the conference included all the State 
of Ohio, with the eastern portions of Indiana, the special 

1 See pp. 180, 184-186. 



A GROUP OF EARLY CONFERENCES 557 

centers of work being in the Miami, Scioto, and Muskin- 
gum valleys. 

The history of the conference presents a long list of names 
of men who toiled laboriously, in the earlier days and the 
later, and who contributed their proportion of noble achieve- 
ment to what must perhaps, here as all over the Church, re- 
main as a portion of its unrecorded history, except in the 
souls gathered into the kingdom of God. Six of its mem- 
bers, some of them while in previous connection in other 
conferences, have been honored by the General Conference 
with the responsibility of the bishop's office, of whom five, the 
elder and the younger Kumler, Zeller, Hoffman, and Coons, 
have been gathered into the eternal harvest. Others have 
been called to other responsible stations in the Church, as 
Shuey to the management of the Publishing House, Flick- 
inger to the missionary secretaryship, Kemp, Billheimer, and 
McKee to the missionary treasury, Garst to Otterbein Univer- 
sity, W. J. Pruner to Hartsville, Landis to the theological 
seminary, Beardshear and Bookwalter to the presidency of 
Western College, S. M. Hippard and C. W. Miller to the 
management of college finances. Others have attained noted 
success as pastors and presiding elders, as C. J. Burkert, J. L. 
Swain, and G. M. Mathews, the last adding to his work the 
care of the Quarterly Review. E. S. Lorenz, at one time 
president of Lebanon Valley College, is known through- 
out the Church, and more broadly beyond, as one of the 
foremost among Sunday-school music and song writers. 
Drs. W. H. Klinefelter and S. B. Ervin, former college 
presidents, are pastors in this conference. J. D. Holtzinger, 
the oldest living itinerant, waits in sweetness of spirit for 
the coming crown. Jacob Antrim, who sometimes gathered 
from three to four hundred souls into the Church in a 
single year, has long since gone to his reward. Ehinehart, 
the first editor of the Religious Telescope, and much noted 



558 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

as a singer, earlier from Virginia and a member of the 
old conference, remained with the Miami till his death. 
John McNamar and the Bonebrakes, men of rugged 
strength, were among the early workers in this field. 
From everywhere the familiar faces look down to us out 
of the past, a numerous host, men who feared God, and 
toiled in the field until the going down of the sun. 

Laymen, too, this conference has produced whose names 
are widely known. Among these was David L. Rike, 
who never thought the smallest meeting of the church 
too unimportant to attend, was a wise and safe coun- 
selor, serving long on many boards of the Church, was 
the stanchest and most lamented friend of Otterbein 
University, was sincere and unostentatious in his religious 
life, and large-hearted and generous in his benevolences. 
He has passed on to his coronation. John Dodds has 
long been widely known to the Church for his large- 
handed liberality, both in the city in which he has spent 
his life, and widely elsewhere, as many struggling church 
enterprises have experienced. Both these men were mem- 
bers of the General Conference of 1893, and Mr. Dodds 
is elected a delegate to that of 1897. 

The conference has had good success in some of the 
cities and larger towns. Three thousand of its more than 
eleven thousand members are distributed among its ten 
churches in the city of Dayton. It has taken a place 
among the foremost in the advocacy of the progressive 
measures which have marked the life of the Church. In 
the long agitation on the anti-secret-society legislation 
it was among the most earnest in urging more liberal 
measures. It was among the first also to press the 
principle of 'pro rata representation in the General Con- 
ference, and in asking for lay delegation in the General 
and annual conferences. Generous from the beginning in 



A OBOUP OF EARL Y CONFEBENCES 559 

its support of Otterbein University, in contributing money 
and students alike, and equally so in its support of Union 
Biblical Seminary, its ministry and people have been 
greatly the gainers. 

III. THE MUSKINGUM CONFERENCE. 

Many of the United Brethren families who emigrated 
westward found new homes in the Muskingum Valley, in 
sections contiguous to Westmoreland and other counties 
in Pennsylvania where the Church was already estab- 
lished. They remained under the care of the old confer- 
ence in the East until the year 1818. The distance to 
the East, and the poverty of most of the ministers, pre- 
vented their attendance at the conference sessions. It was 
therefore resolved to form a second conference west of the 
mountains, and on the 1st of June, 1818, six ministers 
met at Joseph Naftzgar's, in Harrison County, Ohio, to 
effect an organization. Their names were Abraham For- 
ney, Matthias Bortsfield, Joseph Gundy, Christian Knagi 
(Kanaga), Jacob "Winter, and John Crum. Bishops New- 
comer and Zeller presided. Three visitors, J. G. Pfrim- 
mer, Jacob Antrim, and J. A. Lehman, were present. A 
camp-meeting held near by, on the farm of Mr. Bortsfield, 
had been closed just before the conference was opened. 
Bishop Newcomer, in referring to this meeting, expresses 
surprise at the great numbers of the people who were 
present, and says, "The grace of God wrought power- 
fully among the people." It was from this season of 
spiritual baptism that these ministers came when they 
gathered for this first conference. Their minutes breathe 
warmly the spirit of grace. "Brotherly love," say they, 
"united the hearts of the little band," and they "resolved 
to build the kingdom of Christ under the blessing of the 
Lord." 



660 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

"It is a sublime spectacle," remarks Mr. Lawrence, "to 
behold these six Germ.an m.inisters, without patronage, 
with little education, and depending almost wholly on 
the products of their little farms in the woods for their 
subsistence, resolving to build the kingdom of Christ. And 
they did build, and God owned their work." 

The Muskingum Conference as thus organized included 
all the territory lying east and north of the Muskingum 
Eiver, and several counties in western Pennsylvania, 
among them Westmoreland and Washington counties, the 
region where Christian Berger and others had begun to 
preach as early as 1803. The work west of the Pennsyl- 
vania line was for a number of years conducted almost 
wholly by a consecrated local ministry, so slightly was the 
regular itinerancy yet organized in that day. Gradually 
a change came, and the conference in numbers and 
efficiency gained a high rank. 

Regret has already been expressed that this noble con- 
ference, through later reorganization of boundary, lost its 
autonomy and name in the Church. It has, however, 
produced names that will live. Among the men whom 
it raised up are Bishop Weaver, Alexander Biddle, and 
others familiar to the General Conferences and the Church 
a generation ago. Of Mr. Biddle a word is to be spoken 
farther on. 

IV. THE SCIOTO CONFERENCE. 

The early history of the Scioto Conference is the same 
as that of the Miami. The Miami was organized within 
the territory which afterward became that of the Scioto, 
and up to 1824 the life of the two conferences was one. 
The region which fell to the Scioto was among the fairest 
of the State, and portions of it were at that time under 
more advanced cultivation than other portions of Ohio. 



A GROUP OF EABL Y CONFERENCES 561 

The territory was the central and southeastern parts of 
the State. 

At the session of the Miami Conference in 1824 arrange- 
ments were made for the division, and the first separate 
session of the Scioto Conference was held in June, 1825, 
in Fairfield County. The records of this and three suc- 
ceeding sessions are not preserved, and the particular place 
where this initial session was held cannot now be deter- 
mined. The list of names also of the charter members 
seems to be lost. The minutes as preserved commence 
with the session of 1829. At this session the following 
names appear as "brethren present": Samuel Hiestand, 
Elijah Collins, John Coons, Nathaniel Havens, Joseph 
Hoffman, John Russel, John Eckert, James Kinney, Jacob 
Zeller, and Philip Cramer. Among the additional names 
for 1830 are Dewalt Mechlin, Lewis Cramer, William Hast- 
ings, Andrew Bird, J. Montgomery, and William Ambrose, 
and in 1831 are found recorded the names of George 
Benedum, one of the first members of the Miami, Royal 
Hastings, and William Hanby. Some of the names, how- 
ever, of the original members remain. Among these was 
John Coons, afterward bishop, who was licensed to preach 
in 1823. He became a member of the Miami Conference, 
and in the division transferred his connection to the new 
conference. His later years were spent in the Miami. 
The reader has seen an account of him. A man of renown 
in this conference was Joshua Montgomery, licensed in 
the Miami Conference in 1824, and casting his lot with 
the Scioto Conference in the division. He was often a 
member of the General Conference. He is remembered 
as a man of rather short, stout figure, with an earnest 
face, large head, and deep-set eyes, genial and companion- 
able, an able preacher, and a valuable man in his con- 
ference and in the general councils of the Church. Like 

36 



562 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Mr. Coons, lie was a member of the famous General Con- 
ference of 1841. 

This conference has contributed its full share of men of 
strength to the Church. To the office of bishop it gave 
Hiestand, Coons, Hanby, Edwards, and Davis. Bishop 
Mills, while being a member of the Iowa Conference at the 
time of his election to the office, was born and brought 
u]) and licensed in the Scioto. These have been elsewhere 
spoken of. Among the early members of the conference 
William Ambrose is well remembered. Born in Maryland 
in 1770, converted in 1789, making an extensive preaching 
tour through Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio with Bishop 
Newcomer in 1812, he afterward removed to Highland 
County, Ohio, and became one of the early builders of 
the Church in Ohio. Two of his sons, Matthias and 
Lewis, grandsons of Christian Crum, became preachers, 
and one of them, Matthias, was three times a member of 
the General Conference from the Scioto, and afterward 
twice from the Illinois Conference. He joined the Scioto 
Conference in 1833. A strong figure in this conference 
in its earlier years was Elias A^andemark, who was licensed 
to preach in 1829, and gave a quarter of a century of 
earnest and successful labor to the Church. Among its 
present best-known itinerants are G. W. Deaver, George 
Geiger, W. H. Price, Samuel Whitmore, J. H. Dickson, 
and others. 

This conference, in the earlier days of the Publishing 
House, was charged with its special oversight during the 
intervals between the sessions of the General Conference, 
the trustees being required to account annually to the 
conference. To the Scioto belongs also the honor of being 
the first among all the conferences to take effective action 
with reference to the founding of an educational institu- 
tion. The account of the founding of Otterbein University 



A GBOUr OF EARLY CONFERENCES 563 

has already been given. For many years, until the organi- 
zation of the Central Ohio Conference, the college was 
within the boundaries of the Scioto, a fact which con- 
tributed much to the strength and honorable position 
which the conference acquired. 

V. THE INDIANA CONFERENCE. 

The Indiana Annual Conference, one of the fair daugh- 
ters of the old Miami, herself the mother of a goodly 
family, embraces territorially the southern part of the 
State of Indiana. The conference w^as organized in the 
year 1830, meeting in its first session on the 25th of 
May in that year. The place of meeting was the house 
of Mr. Stonecypher, about four miles south of Cory don, 
the county-seat of Harrison County. By the year 1835 
the conference had so far extended its territories as to 
render division advantageous, and the Wabash Confer- 
ence was formed. In 1846 another division followed, the 
northern half becoming the White River Conference, while 
the southern half retained the original name. 

Among the early names of this conference are found a 
number who had already achieved distinction for ability 
and service as members of the Miami Conference, such 
as John McNamar, Aaron Farmer, Francis Whitcomb, 
D. Bonebrake, and B. Abbott — strong names in those days. 

Familiar names of later years in this conference were 
L. S. Chittenden, J. Lopp, Daniel Shuck, J. L. Stearns, 
J. Scammahorn, J. Ball, and I. K. Haskins. Of these Mr. 
Shuck and Mr. Haskins alone survive. Mr. Shuck was 
elected bishop from this conference, at the General Con- 
ference at Westerville in 1861. His name has mention 
in this volume in connection with that conference. Mr. 
Chittenden was often presiding elder. He was a member 
of the committee on compiling a hymn-book for the 



564 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Church, as ordered by the General Conference of 1857 ; 
was a number of times a delegate to the General Confer- 
ence, and was chaplain of the Sixty-seyenth Indiana Reg- 
iment in the War. He died at Westfield, Illinois, in June, 
1892. Mr. Haskins was frequently presiding elder, and 
his name is seyeral times found on the General Conference 
rolls. He remoyed to Kansas in 1884. 

Prominent among the names of the present time in this 
conference are J. Breden, J. M. Fowler, A. A. Armen, 
J. T. Demunbrun, J. T. Hobson, and A. W. Arford, all of 
whom haye seryed the conference as presiding elders. 
Mr. Hobson has been secretary of the conference since 
1879, with the exception of one year, and seryed fiye years 
as presiding elder. 

The present membership of this conference is seyenty- 
four ministers, of whom forty-four are in the itinerant 
ranks, with 10,082 in the laity. There are forty-eight 
young people's societies, with a membership of 1,444. The 
Sunday-school enrollment, including officers, teachers, and 
scholars, is 8,161. 

yi. THE VIRGINIA CONFERENCE. 

The old conference of the East, or Hagerstown Confer- 
ence, remained substantially a unit until the year 1831. 
Its territory included Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsyl- 
vania. The mention of this conference calls up the names 
of Otterbein, Boehm, Guething, and others, who spent the 
whole of their ministerial life within its bounds, sowing 
the seed of the word, and preparing the way for the 
generous harvests which were to follow. In the earlier 
pages of this volume the history of this conference is 
traced with moderate fullness up to 1815, from which time 
forward greater attention is given to the successive General 
Conferences. Meanwhile, the work of development went 



A OROVP OF EARLY CONFERENCES 565 

forward. The conference increased in numbers, alike of 
its ministers and membership, until it became advisable, 
for the greater convenience of serving the various charges, 
to divide it into two sections. The General Conference 
of 1829 took appropriate action authorizing the division, 
in the following resolution : 

Resolved^ That the Hagerstown Conference district be divided 
to the best advantage, and that the brethren Hildt, Brown, Zahn, 
and Miller constitute a committee for the purpose. 

This committee brought a report to the conference, 
which was adopted. Of this report the following minute 
appears on the record : 

The committee appointed to divide the Hagerstown Conference 
district reported that said district shall in the future consist of the 
State of Virginia and the counties of Washington and Allegheny 
in Maryland, and that the remaining part of the said district shall 
constitute a new one, to be called the Harrisburg District. 

Both of the names thus assigned by the General Con- 
ference were within a few years changed, the old name 
of Hagerstown District or Conference becoming the Vir- 
ginia Conference, and the Harrisburg District or Confer- 
ence becoming the Pennsylvania Conference. 

In March, 1830, the old conference met for the last time 
as one body, at Shopp's Meeting-house, near Shiremans- 
town, Pennsylvania. Seventy-eight names were at this 
time enrolled on the ministerial list, and fifty-seven of this 
number were present. The session was one of peculiar 
interest. The brethren who had toiled so long in the close 
fellowship of a single body were henceforth to labor as 
two companies. A tender Christian fellowship prevailed 
throughout the session, and the secretary makes this record 
in the minutes : '' Love and unity reigned in the con- 
ference." Toward the close of the session the question 
was asked which of the two bodies, after the division was 



566 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

consummated, should retain possession of the record. It 
was answered by the adoption of a resolution : 

Resolved, That in future the Hagerstown Conference shall have 
the old protocol [minutes], and that the Harrisburg Conference 
shall procure a new book. 

To this the record adds the following minute : " Bishop 
Kumler gave to William Brown two dollars, with which 
he shall purchase a new protocol for the Harrisburg 
Conference, and shall transcribe from the old into the 
new all important proceedings." 

From this session was missed the presence of the ven- 
erable Bishop Newcomer, the first time for a long series 
of years. Just a few months before, he was called into 
the presence of the Master. 

The Hagerstown Conference, whose name soon after 
appears as the Virginia, convened in its first separate 
session on April 27, 1831, at Mill Creek, Shenandoah 
County, Virginia. Twenty ministers were present at the 
opening session : Henry Kumler, Sen., bishop, William 
R. Rhinehart, Henry Burtner, J. Krock, G. Patterson, 
G. Guething, J. Zahn, W. Kinnear, W. Miller, P. Witzel, 
Jacob Rhinehart, J. Houck, G. Hoffman, N. Woodyard, 
J. Haney, H. Higgins, J. Hass, P. Harmon, W. Knott, and 
Jacob Erb, of Pennsylvania. Early in the session a young 
man of slender build, not yet nineteen years old, was pre- 
sented as an applicant for license to preach. For forty -two 
years the Church knew him as Bishop Glossbrenner. Two 
years later the names of J. M. Hershey, G. Rimal, W. R. 
Coursey, and G. A. Shue}' appear in the minutes ; in 1834 
Jacob Bachtel was admitted, and in 1838 Jacob Mark- 
wood. Glossbrenner, Markwood, and Bachtel gave great 
strength to the conference, and a high standing before the 
General Conferences. Other men of distinction appeared 
from time to time, as J. W. Howe, George W. Statton, 



A GROUP OF EARLY CONFERENCES 567 

I. K. Station, John Ruebush, W. T. Lower, C. B. Ham- 
mack, H. A. Bovey, and J. Rodruck. Of these, Mr. Howe 
remains in the conference, the Stations and H. A. Bovey 
are in the West, the others are in the kingdom above. Z. 
Warner became a member of the Parkersburg Conference. 
Younger than any of these is Bishop J. W. Hott, also of 
this conference. Among others well known are George P. 
Hott, A. P. Funkhouser, C. P. Dyche, W. R. Berry, J. D. 
Donovan, and W. F. Gruver. Many others of its men, 
among them A. M. Evers, C. T. Steam, and the Grimms, 
are in other fields. Charles M. Hott, a brother of the 
bishop, a man of brilliant gifts and great usefulness, after 
twenty-two years of devoted service, died in 1890. His 
remains lie buried in the beautiful cemetery of Wood- 
bridge, California. 

The Virginia Conference, in the men it has given to the 
Church and in the work it has accomplished, has made for 
itself a noble record. Many have been the brave workers 
who, in the more than sixty years of its existence, have 
toiled and gone to their reward. In no other conference 
was the heroism of the ministers and people tried as in this 
through the dark period of the War, when, for three years, 
their territory was a great battlefield. The conference has 
provided nobly for the education of its young people in 
rearing and supporting Shenandoah Institute. 

VII. THE PENNSYLVANIA CONFERENCE. 

The Harrisburg Conference, as named by the General 
Conference of 1829, became, not long after its separate 
organization, the Pennsylvania Conference, the latter desig- 
nation expressing more appropriately its geographical 
position. The first session of the conference, as newly 
organized, was held in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, 
in April, 1831, with thirty-one ministers present. Five 



568 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

candidates for license to preach were received, making 
the number thirty-six. Two years later the boundaries 
of the conference were so extended as to embrace the 
territory west of the Alleghany Mountains, including 
Westmoreland and Washington counties, where a number 
of societies had been established, and which had been 
under the care of the Muskingum Conference since its 
organization in 1818. The conference now included the 
whole of Pennsylvania and a portion of Maryland. With 
this large territory before it the conference addressed itself 
to the work with much energy, and grew so rapidly that 
in 1838, seven years after the separation from the old or 
Hagerstown Conference, at a session at AVormleysburg, 
Cumberland County, there were ninety-eight preachers 
present. To this number nine were added during the 
session, making one hundred and seven. In this year the 
portion west of the Alleghany Mountains was set off, form- 
ing the Allegheny Conference, thus considerably reducing 
the number of preachers. 

In the year 1846 another division was made, by which 
the East Pennsylvania Conference was formed. The Penn- 
sylvania Conference was now known for a few years as 
the West Pennsylvania. The name "West" was soon 
dropped, and the old name without prefix restored, on 
account of the possible invalidation of titles to bequests 
made to the conference under its old name. There were 
sixty-nine ministers in the conference at the time of the 
division. Of these thirty-four remained in the Pennsyl- 
vania Conference, while thirty-five were enrolled with the 
East Pennsylvania. 

This conference enrolled in its earlier as well as later 
days many men who served the Church with signal ability. 
Among these was Jacob Erb, who was licensed as a 
preacher in the original conference in 1823. Another was 



A GROUP OF EARLY CONFERENCES 569 

John Russel, licensed in 1818. Both of these became 
bishops, and both have been spoken of. George Miller, 
one of the foremost men of that time, joined the conference 
in 1833, serving with great success until 1851. Jacob 
Winter was one of the most successful laborers, his field 
being in the western part of the State. Christian Crider, 
son of Rev. John Crider, a man of devout heart and most 
exemplary life, was licensed to preach in 1835. At the 
separation in 1846 he cast his lot with the East Pennsyl- 
vania Conference. He is remembered as a man and 
preacher of worthiest type. He died in March, 1850. 
J. S. Kessler, not educated, not brilliant in the pulpit, w^as 
a most industrious worker and one of the most acceptable 
men of the conference. At the division of the conference 
in 1846 his name was enrolled with the East Pennsylvania. 
An interesting biography of Mr. Kessler was written by 
Dr. I. L. Kephart. Samuel Huber was a man of mark in 
this conference. An autobiography of him was published 
some years ago. 

Among the younger men at the time of the division 
were J. C. Smith and Alexander Owen. Smith advanced 
rapidly to the front. He preached ably in both English 
and German, and was an indefatigable and successful 
worker. Owen was one of the most lovable of men, a 
preacher of great ability, became president of Mount 
Pleasant College, and, upon its transfer to Otterbein Uni- 
versity, editor of the Unity Magazine, and later president 
of Otterbein University. He died, greatly lamented, at 
the early age of forty-one. Z. A. Colestock, of Dutch 
descent, born in 1824, began preaching in 1844. After 
a long life of useful service, much honored and loved by 
his brethren, he now waits in contented old age, with his 
companion by his side, for the Master's final call. In the 
year 1846 John Dickson took his first work in this con- 



570 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

ference. The reader has made his acquaintance as Bishop 
Dickson. Among the most useful members of this con- 
ference, a successful revivalist and pastor, and greatly 
interested in Sunday-school work, is H. A. Schlichter, who 
became a member in 1861. He will not lay down the sword 
until he exchanges it for the harp. Among the laymen 
of this conference Mr. Jacob Hoke, who died several years 
ago, holds a distinguished place. He was long a member 
of the Publishing House and other boards of the Church, 
and was the author of several valuable works, among 
them "The Great Invasion," the history of Lee's invasion 
of Pennsylvania, esteemed one of the best war histories 
ever written. A name long familiar in the roll of this 
conference was that of AV. B. Raber. He served frequently 
in the office of presiding elder, and was a number of times 
in the General Conference. Other familiar names, a num- 
ber of them on the General Conference records, are A. H. 
Rice, J. L. Grimm, B. F. Daugherty, J. P. Hutchison, J. P. 
Jones, Dr. I. H. Albright, J. P. Anthony, J. T. Shaffer, Dr. 
C. A. Burtner, H. B. Spayd. Dr. C. T. Stearn has long been 
a leading member of this conference, serving successfully 
a number of its best stations. He was elected to the 
General Conference in 1881, and to each conference since 
up to the present. In this body, as also in the Virginia 
and Pennsylvania conferences, he was among the stanchest 
in advocating the constitutional reforms which have 
recently been consummated, urging their adoption when 
it was unpopular to be a liberal. 

The Pennsylvania Conference, by special arrangement 
with the congregation of the old Otterbein Church in 
Baltimore, made soon after Otterbein's death, supplied that 
church with pastors until the organization of the East 
German Conference, since which time pastors have been 
supplied by the latter conference. The conference has 



A GROUP OF EARLY CONFERENCES 571 

seventy-four ministers, of whom sixty-six are itinerant. Its 
general membership is 11,653. Its Sunday-school enroll- 
ment is, teachers and scholars, 17,569, over fifty per cent, 
above the church membership, showing a high degree of 
activity in the Sunday-school work. The membership 
of the young people's societies is over 3,600. 

VIII. THE EAST PENNSYLVANIA CONFERENCE. 

All history of the Harrisburg, or Pennsylvania, Con- 
ference between the years 1830 and 1846 belongs to the 
Pennsylvania and East Pennsylvania conferences alike, 
the division of the conference district occurring in the 
latter year. In the year 1847 the eastern and western 
divisions met for the first time in separate sessions. The 
prefixes "East" and "West" were attached to the names 
by the General Conference of 1845 when authorizing the 
division, and the name "West" was, four years later, 
dropped from the Pennsylvania for reasons already noted. 
The journal of the conference, including a copy of the 
minutes of the old or Hagerstown Conference from 1800 
down to 1830, and the original record from the latter 
date to 1846, passed into the possession of the East Penn- 
sylvania Conference. 

The first separate session of this conference was held 
at Brechbill's Meeting-house, near Annville, on March 
4, 1847, Bishop Hanby presiding. The number of min- 
isters enrolled was thirty-five, of whom twenty-six were 
in attendance ; the laity numbered about fifteen hundred. 
Among these were a number of men whose names became 
broadly known, as Solomon Yonnieda and David Strickler, 
both of whom were editors of the Frohliche Botschafter, 
and the former publishing agent ; John A. Sand, an able 
German preacher ; John Doerkson, born in Germany, a 
man of much strength ; Jacob Scholler, later of the Ohio 



572 THE VyiTED BRETIIBEN IN CHRIST 

German Conference ; John C. Smith, who is remembered 
by many ; Gideon Smith ; D. Gingerich ; Andrew Steiger- 
walt, who transferred to the East German Conference ; 
George A. Mark, Sen., a man of much influence in the 
conference counsels. 

Others who followed and are deceased were : George A. 
Mark, Israel Carpenter, AV. S. H. Keys, the last two noted 
as eloquent preachers ; Carpenter was blind for many 
years ; C. S. Meily, distinguished as a linguist and Oriental 
scholar ; his valuable library is in Union Biblical Sem- 
inary ; Dr. J. AY. Etter, author, professor, and editor ; 
Lewis Peters, a successful preacher, four times in the 
General Conference ; Isaiah Baltzell, a delightful music 
writer, whose name is closely joined with that of E. S. 
Lorenz, and whose songs and music continue to give 
pleasure to thousands. Others, as Dr. I. L. Kephart, Dr. 
I. H. Albright, Jacob H. Mark, and T. P. Orner, have 
transferred to other conferences. 

Among those now prominent in this conference, some 
in service elsewhere, are Dr. S. D. Faust, professor in 
Union Biblical Seminary ; Dr. Ezekiel Light, chaplain 
of the National Alilitary Home, at Dayton, Ohio ; Dr. C. J. 
Kephart, Sunday-school secretary for the State association 
of Pennsylvania ; H. B. Dohner, prominent in the Sunday- 
school work of the conference and State ; Dr. J. P. Miller, 
one of the ablest preachers and most successful j^astors 
of the conference ; D. D. Lowery and M. J. Mumma, long 
among its safest counselors ; E. Ludwick, H. C. Phillips, 
H. U. Poop, successful preachers and laborers ; C. I. B. 
Brane, who recently transferred from the Maryland Con- 
ference. One of the long-familiar figures in the General 
Conference sessions is Dr. G. W. M. Pigor, noted for his 
steady opposition to radicalism and his support of reform 
movements. He was closely associated with the publication 



A GEO UP OF EARLY CONFERENCES 573 

of the United Brethren Tribune, a paper opposed to extreme 
radicalism and advocating constitutional reform and more 
liberal legislation. The paper was published in Harris- 
burg, with Light and Rigor as editors, and was discon- 
tinued when the objects it advocated were accomplished. 
He was also connected with Isaiah Baltzell in the publi- 
cation of the Musical Visitor, a monthly in which the 
uniform Sunday-school lessons were published in 1872, 
prior to the commencement of the International lesson 
courses, the latter beginning with January, 1873. 

The East Pennsylvania has long held the position of one 
of the most progressive conferences of the Church, a place 
gained in part through its unflinching attitude during the 
long period of radical agitation. In Sunday-school and 
educational work it holds a place well at the front. Before 
the general Sunday-School Board placed the Sunday-school 
secretary in the field, the conference Sunday-school con- 
vention employed Rev. H. V. Mohn to hold institutes 
throughout the conference district. This same work was 
afterward placed in the hands of the presiding elders and 
made a part of their regular duties. 

The conference has churches in nearly all the larger 
towns and cities in its territory, most of them in a prosper- 
ous condition. It has a membership of 8,313, with sixty- 
five ministers, of whom sixty -two are in the itinerant ranks. 
Its activity in the Sunday-school work is suggested by the 
fact that it enrolls 12,715 teachers and scholars, a number 
more than fifty per cent, greater than that of its church 
membership. Nearly three thousand names are enrolled 
in its young people's societies. 

IX. THE ALLEGHENY CONFERENCE. 

As early as 1803 John G. Pfrimmer and Christian 
Berger went into western Pennsylvania and preached the 



574 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

word in Westmorelaud and Washington counties. In 
November of the same year Christian Newcomer visited 
the locahty, preaching for a time with great success. Of 
a meeting at John Bonnet's School-house, where the first 
General Conference was held twelve years later, he says 
in his Journal, "I had not spoken long before some of 
my hearers fell to the floor ; others stood trembling and 
crying so loud that my voice could not be heard." On 
the next day he preached in the evening at a private 
house. Of this he says : " The jDOwer of God was dis- 
played in a most marvelous manner. The whole con- 
gregation was moved. Mourning and lamentation were 
general. Some of the most stubborn sinners fell before 
the power of God. The meeting continued the whole 
night, and some were enabled to rejoice in the pardoning 
love of God." On a Sabbath soon after he preached in 
a barn, with from three to four hundred people present. 
Some, unable to gain admittance, stood without in a 
drenching rain. He speaks of the occasion as "a Pente- 
cost." Some, he says, fell from their seats ; some lay as 
if they were dead. The wee^^ing and crying and praying 
came from every part of the house. 

Thus amid lowly scenes, in private houses or barns, 
were laid, here as in many other ]3laces, the foundations 
of the Church. It is not always amid the environments 
of luxury, in churches richly adorned with elegance and 
splendor, or under the sound of organs or orchestras, that 
the great soul-struggles are accomj^lished through which 
men enter into life. Even so amid rude surroundings in 
a humble spot over the seas the great Shepherd of the 
sheep brought to the world its richest joy. 

The Allegheny Conference, though the Church was 
founded so early, did not become a distinct organization 
until the year 1839. A portion of the territory occupied 



A OROVP OF EARLY CONFERENCES 575 

by it had earlier, as has been seen, formed a part of the 
Muskingum Conference. In 1833 the General Conference 
attached all of the Muskingum Conference lying in Penn- 
sylvania to the Pennsylvania Conference. At the session 
of the Pennsylvania Conference in 1838, at Wormleysburg, 
there were present ninety-eight preachers and some forty 
laymen, so that the question of entertainment became an 
embarrassing one, while the long distances for travel 
further suggested the propriety of division. By general 
consent, as was sometimes done in the earlier days, the 
conference agreed upon a division, without previous action 
of the General Conference. 

The Allegheny Conference met in its first separate ses- 
sion on March 25, 1839, at Mount Pleasant, in Westmore- 
land County, Pennsylvania. The conference roll contained 
twenty-nine names. Fourteen ministers were present, 
namely, Harmonius Ow, John R. Sitman, Joseph Zum- 
bro, George Miller, John Rathfon, John Wallace, Adolphus 
Hamden, Isaac Coones, Martin Houser, William Beighel, 
Daniel Worman, Jacob Hitter, Henry Metzger, and William 
B. Lewis. Among those not present was Henry Kephart, 
father of Bishop E. B. Kephart and Drs. I. L. and C. J. 
Kephart. Among those received into membership was 
George Wagoner, father of Rev. George Wagoner who 
perished with some of his family in the Johnstown flood 
in 1889 ; also John L. Baker, who is still living, at the 
advanced age of eighty-six, at Mount Pleasant. 

This conference has produced a very considerable num- 
ber of men who have become widely known to the Church, 
some of them in fields remote from the place of their birth. 
Among these may be named Jacob Ritter, the only sur- 
viving member from 1838, who published at an early 
day ''Ritter's Sketches," a small volume which served a 
useful purpose for ministers ; J. B. Resler, long known 



576 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

in connection with Otterbein University ; George Keister, 
professor in Union Biblical Seminary, deceased ; Bishop 
E. B. Kephart, I. L. Kephart, C. J. Kephart, H. A. Thomp- 
son ; A. L. DeLong, for a time a professor in Western 
College ; D. D. DeLong, twelve years president of Lebanon 
Valley College ; George A. Funkhouser, senior professor 
in Union Biblical Seminary ; S. B. Allen, professor in 
Otterbein University and president of Westfield College. 
Among other well-known names are W. B. Dick, Isaiah 
Potter, M. Spangler, J. Medsger, D. Speck, B. F. Noon, 
D. Sheerer, R. S. Woodward. Among the younger men 
are H. F. Shape, editor of the Watchword; L. W. Stahl, 
a man of recognized efficiency ; W. J. Zuck, professor in 
Otterbein University ; J. I. L. Resler, L. F. John, W. E. 
Funk, and A. L. Funk, men of growing strength ; J. M. 
Lesher and J. R. King, who have rendered valuable service 
as missionaries to Africa. Samuel S. Snyder, who went 
early to Kansas, and fell a victim to Quantrell's raiders in 
the first year of the War, was a member of this conference. 

The Allegheny Conference has taken a place among 
the foremost in progressive character. As early as 1840, 
thirteen years before the organization of the general Mis- 
sionary Society, it formed the Home Missionary Society 
of the Allegheny Conference. In 1847 it took prelim- 
inary action leading to the founding of Mount Pleasant 
College. In the same year, with the view of securing 
better qualifications for its ministry, it ordered the arrange- 
ment of a special course of reading, upon the general plan 
of that now found in the Discipline. 

In general church membership the Allegheny Confer- 
ence leads all the other conferences, the number being 
12,383. In Sunday-school enrollment and in member- 
ship in young people's associations it is surpassed only 
by the Pennsylvania Conference. 



A GEO UP OF EABLY CONFEBENCES 577 

X. THE SANDUSKY CONFERENCE. 

The first member of the United Brethren Church 
within the territory of the Sandusky Conference, so far 
as is known, was Rev. Jacob Baulus, who, in the year 
1822, removed with his family from Maryland, and settled 
upon an uncultivated farm near Fremont, Ohio. He soon 
opened his house for religious services, gathered about him 
his neighbors, preached to them the gospel, and formed a 
society. The General Conference of 1829 attached a portion 
of Sandusky County to the Muskingum Conference, and it 
was named Sandusky Circuit. The Muskingum Confer- 
ence at its next session made this circuit the nucleus of 
a presiding-elder's district, naming it Sandusky District. 
Mr. Baulus was elected elder for the district, and J. Zahn 
preacher on the Sandusky Circuit. Other circuits were 
soon formed, and the work was strengthened by the 
arrival of United Brethren families from the East. Among 
them were several preachers, as George Hiskey, John 
Smith, Philip Cramer, Henry Kimberlin, John and Jacob 
Crum, Israel Harrington, Daniel Strayer, and others. 

In view of this rapid growth, the General Conference 
of 1833 authorized the organization. The first session 
was held on May 12 of the following year, at the house 
of Philip Bretz, near Melmore, Seneca County, Bishop 
Hiestand presiding. Twenty ministers were present at 
the organization. Six names were added to the list. 
Thus the conference entered upon its career with an en- 
rollment of twenty-six preachers. All of these have 
passed on into the great beyond. The territory of the 
conference at its organization embraced all it now pos- 
sesses, a portion of that now occupied by the Central Ohio 
Conference, and all that part of Ohio now belonging to 
the North Ohio Conference. 



578 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Among the most useful of the early ministers of this 
conference was Stephen Lillibridge. His brief career, 
lasting only eight years, was marked by incessant labor. 
From his diary it appeared that he had preached over 
nineteen hundred sermons, or an average of nearly five 
for each week. He died near Findlay, Ohio, in 1843, at 
the early age of twenty-eight. At the second session of 
the conference, in 1835, Henry G. Spayth came into this 
conference on transfer. He rendered the Church an inval- 
uable service in writing a history of its earlier periods, 
mention of which has been made in the preceding pages.^ 
Mr. Spayth died at Tiffin, Ohio, on September 2, 1873. 
Joseph Bever, a successful preacher and safe counselor, 
joined this conference in 1835. He compiled the "Chris- 
tian Songster," long acceptable to the Church. He died 
at a ripe age, at Fostoria, in November, 1896. A. Spracklin 
was esteemed an able expounder of the Word. John C. 
Bright became a member of the conference in 1841. To 
him, as practically the founder of the Home, Frontier, 
and Foreign Missionary Society, the Church is greatly 
indebted. He died in 1866.^ John Lawrence, fourteen 
years editor of the Religious Telescope, has been elsewhere 
referred to. D. Glancy was a devoted and successful 
laborer, and won many to the Church and to Christ. 
William Mathers became a member of the conference in 
1847. He wrote a brief history of the conference. After 
fifty years of connection with the conference he still re- 
mains strong in the esteem of his brethren. 

Alexander Biddle, one of the oldest living ministers in 
the Church, having reached the age of Otterbein and 
Boehm, was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, in 
April, 1810, and has nearly completed his eighty-seventh 
year. He was licensed to preach in 1830, and ordained 

1 See p. 282. ^ c^ee pp. 427, 428. 



A GROUP OF EARLY CONFERENCES 579 

by the first Bishop Kumler in 1832. He has been a mem- 
ber of the Sandus*ky Conference since 1847, or fifty years, 
and in the ministry sixty-seven years. He remained in the 
active itinerancy about sixty-four years, since which time 
he has sustained a local relation, preaching when strength 
would j^ermit. He was a member of the General Confer- 
ence of 1841 ; also elected to that of 1837, but not pres- 
ent ; afterward elected to each conference up to 1865. In 
his great age there is a beautiful ripening of the Chris- 
tian graces. In a recent letter, written from his home 
in Gallon, Ohio, he says: ''I am feeling keenly the 
burden of almost eighty-seven years, but am enjoying 
fair health. As to the future, I am living by the day, 
with a bright prospect of the heirship of eternal life. . . . 
In the quiet of my lonely home my soul feasts on the 
riches of divine grace. The time of the sunset has come, 
but its tints are those of a golden autumn day. The 
sun is going down without a cloud, and as the earthly is 
fading out of sight, the heavenly breaks upon my vision, 
and I long to be at home in the bright eternal day which 
has no sunset." In his concluding words Mr. Biddle 
expresses great delight with the progress which the 
Church has made since he entered its ministry three- 
quarters of a century ago. There is a beautiful eloquence 
in this serene old age, so near the borderland of the 
heavenl}^ waiting for the chariots of Israel. 

Among other men of recognized usefulness in this con- 
ference in a later period, who have all died, were M. Bulger, 
S. T. Lane, Alvan Rose, C. L. Barlow, E. M. Bell, Chester 
Briggs (later of the Miami), F. Clymer, and W. McDowell. 
Among others prominent in their day, but now retired, are 
Levi Moore, Isaac Crouse, elsewhere spoken of as the author 
of our organized Sunday-school system, W. Martin, J. F. 
Seller, William Nevill, George Bender, W. W. McCurdy, 



580 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

and T. D. Ingie. Among others now in the active service 
are D. E. Miller, transferred from Auglaize in 1867, T. J. 
Harbaugh, W. A. Keesy, S. H. Eaudebaugh, J. F. Hill, 
J. W. Hicks, G. L. Bender, I. P. Lea, ^V. E. Arnold, J. H. 
Arnold, H. Doty, C. X. Crabbs, I. E. Barnes, E. French, 
and AV. S. Sage, the last once connected with the mission 
work in Africa. Dr. Miller has been since 1885 the 
energetic financial manager of Union Biblical Seminary. 
The Sandusky Conference has steadily stood in the front 
rank in all progressive movements of the Church. It was 
the second to give its voice for building a college for the 
Church, — Otterbein University, — gave strong approval to 
the proposition to build a theological seminary, supported 
vigorously the pro rata and lay-delegation movements, and 
urged more liberal legislation on the secret-society question, 
while always loyal to the general interests of the Church 
even when controlled by those who radically opposed the 
measures it advocated. Some years ago, for the purpose 
of providing more efficiently for local educational needs, 
the conference built Fostoria Academy, at Fostoria, Ohio. 
The work done in the institution proved highly satisfac- 
tory, but the income for its support being insufficient, it 
was recently closed. 

XI. THE UPPER WABASH COXFEEEXCE. 

In the vigorous extension of the Church toward the 
West new conferences were rapidly formed. The Indiana 
Conference, one of the prosperous daughters of the Miami, 
soon gave to the Church daughters of her own household. 
Among these was the Wabash, the northern portion of 
which afterward became the Upper Wabash. The first 
session of the Wabash Conference was held as early as 
September, 1835, in Parke County, Indiana. Thirteen 
preachers were enrolled, and six circuits were recognized, 



A GBOUP OF EARLY CONFERENCES 581 

divided into two presiding-elder's districts. The elders 
chosen for the first year were WiUiam Davis and Jolm 
Denham, Mr. Davis taking also a circuit. The other 
itinerants were James Griffith, E. T. Cook, James Davis, 
Josiah Davis, and J. T. Timmons. John Hoobler soon 
after became a fellow-laborer with these pioneer itinerants. 
Several of these names afterward became widely familiar. 
Of William Davis it has already been said that he became 
president of Otterbein University and later of Western 
College. James Davis became prominent as a revivalist 
and ingatherer of souls. Mr. Griffith, in his young life 
a skeptic, became one of the foremost of the preachers 
in the West. He was an earnest abolitionist in the days 
when it was unpopular to affirm the equal rights of men. 
He was often in the General Conference, and was marked 
for his manly sincerity. John Denham was an able and 
successful preacher in this company of itinerants. 

Almost throughout the entire Church the conditions 
of itinerant life have so greatly changed from those of 
half a century or more ago that it may be well to pre- 
serve here a picture as given by one of the ablest, as well 
as most devoted, of the preachers of that time. It is 
from the pen of William Davis. In a letter to a friend, 
written in the spring of 1846, Mr. Davis said: "A few 
evenings ago, while sitting by my fireside, looking for- 
ward to the labor and exposure and privation which I 
must endure during the conference year which has just 
commenced, my mind was carried back to the past ; where- 
upon, I hunted up my old diary, by the aid of which I 
reached the following facts and conclusions : That I have 
been an itinerant minister in the Church of the United 
Brethren in Christ sixteen years ; that I have traveled 
for ministerial purposes fifty-four thousand two hundred 
miles; that I have preached (or tried to preach) five 



582 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

thousand one hundred and ten sermons ; that I have 
received as an earthly remuneration six hundred and 
fifty-two dollars ; that the Lord has hitherto helped me ; 
and that it would be wickedness to distrust so good a 
friend in time to come. My time has been spent chiefly on 
the frontiers, among poor people ; and could I lead some 
of my rich brethren along the Indian trails, or more dimly- 
beaten paths, to the cabins in the woods, and introduce 
them to meanly -clad parents, surrounded by almost naked 
children, and let them worship and mingle their prayers, 
songs, and tears around the same altar, they too would love 
those poor brethren, excuse their scanty contributions, and 
of their abundance give something for the support of the 
missionary who, perhaps, with ragged clothes and naked 
knees (for I have preached with naked knees) is preaching 
on the frontiers." ^ This portrayal presents, not the expe- 
rience of a solitary individual, but broadly that of the 
pioneer missionary of those days. 

The AVabash Conference in 1858 was divided, forming 
the Upper and Lower Wabash conferences. The two con- 
ferences together number about nineteen thousand souls. 
Of this number 7,437 are in the ' Upper Wabash, its 
Sunday-school enrollment being about eight thousand. 
Prominent in its present ministry are T. M. Hamilton, 
0. P. Cooper, J. W. Nye, J. CowgiU, P. M. Zuck, A. M. 
Snyder, and others. Mr. Hamilton, as others of these men, 
has long been a familiar figure on the floor of the General 
Conference. The conference has sixty ministers, of whom 
forty-one are in the itinerant ranks. 

Mrs. Lydia Sexton, whose field was widely the Church, 
was in a degree identified with this conference, receiving 
from it credentials at the session of 1859. Having been 
born in April, 1799, she was then well advanced in years, 

1 Lawrence's Histoid, Vol. II., p. 275. 



A GROUP OF EARLY CONFERENCES 583 

but had been preaching for many years with a quarterly- 
conference Hcense. One year, 1870, was spent, with great 
success, as chaplain of the Kansas Penitentiary. Her life 
was one of extensive usefulness. She died at Seattle, 
Washington, at the advanced age of ninety-three. 

XII. THE LOWER WABASH CONFERENCE. 

The ministers whose residence, on the division of the 
Wabash Conference, fell within the territory assigned as 
the Lower Wabash, assembled in their first separate ses- 
sion on March 17, 1859, at Westfield, Illinois. Bishop 
Edwards presided. The following ministers responded to 
their names on roll-call : W. C. Smith, S. Mills, S. Bus- 
sard, E. Shuey, E. W. Belknap, H. Elweh, W. M. Givens, 
J. W. Nye, H. Clark, J. P. Shuey, John Burtner, W. H. 
Brown, A. Bales, S. G. Brock, J. Cottman, A. Dunbar, 
A. Helton, M. Hail, E. Jackson, G. P. Jackson, J. McKee, 
S. Rush, S. Stark, and J. Severe. 

Of this number the first nine remain, and the first 
three continue in the active ministry, well advanced in 
years, but retaining much of the zeal of their youth. 
Mr. Smith has given a large part of his life to the finan- 
cial service of Westfield College, has been a delegate to six 
General Conferences, and for nearly forty years has served 
on some of the general boards of the Church. Now, as 
the time of the sunset is coming, he is toiling cheerfully 
as a presiding elder of one of the districts. S. Mills 
has given similar prolonged service to the conference and 
Church. He has been eight times a delegate to the Gen- 
eral Conference, and has been in the presiding-eldership 
or served as agent for Westfield College since 1863. Dr. 
I. L. Kephart, editor of the Religious Telescope, is a mem- 
ber of this conference. Dr. W. H. Klinefelter, six years 
president of Westfield College, had his membership trans- 



584 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

ferred recently to the Miami. Prof. W. R. Sliuey, in the 
chair of mathematics in Westfield College since the found- 
ing, and Prof. L. H. Cooley, formerly in the chair of ancient 
languages, are among the members of this conference. 
The conference possesses a jDrogressive spirit, and some 
years ago opened its doors for the admission of women 
to membership. On its rolls are the names of Mrs. Alva 
Roberts, Mrs. H. J. Musselman, and Mrs. C. A. Stevenson. 

In the days when the anti-secret-society agitation so 
greatly disturbed the Church, this conference was strongly 
radical. Its leading men, however, had a higher regard 
for the unity and welfare of the Church than for the 
perpetuation of radicalism ; and so, when the General 
Conference of 1885 appointed the Commission for the 
revision of the Constitution and Confession of Faith, its 
three presiding elders, AY. M. Givens, S. Mills, and J. G. 
Shuey, in counsel together, resolved to do all in their 
power to hold the ministers and people in their districts 
in thorough loyalty to the Church. In this they were 
entirely successful. The conference remained a unit 
throughout the troublesome period of the secession. Had 
some others in high official position taken a similar and 
really Christian course, they might have prevented much 
evil. 

Numerically, the Lower AVabash Conference stands 
among the foremost in the Church, its ministerial roll 
embracing ninety-one names, with a general membership 
of 11,360. Its Sunday-school enrollment is 12,356, and 
its young people's societies have a membership of 1,835. 



CHAPTER II 

OTHER CONFERENCES ORGANIZED FROM 1835 TO 1853 

The period from 1835 to 1853 was one of great mis- 
sionary activity, although the general Missionary Society 
was not yet organized. The reader has just seen that 
the Wabash Conference was organized in 1835, with thir- 
teen ministers and six circuits. Within ten years the 
Wabash became the prolific mother of three additional 
conferences — the Iowa, the St. Joseph, and the Illinois. 
The thirteen ministers had increased in this time to 
ninety-nine, and the six charges to forty-eight. 

I. THE IOWA CONFERENCE. 

Iowa Conference was the first conference formed in the 
vast territory west of the Mississippi ceded by France to 
the United States in 1803, and known as the "Louisiana 
Purchase." Iowa was organized as a Territory in 1838 
and as a State in 1846. Among the early settlers were 
persons from United Brethren communities, including a 
few United Brethren preachers. About 1836 John Burns, 
a local preacher, and Christian Troup, a member of the 
Wabash Conference, came and soon established preaching 
places. Ira B. Ryan, at the time a layman, formed, in 1841, 
the first class. The first quarterly conference was held at 
what is now Lisbon in 1842. Early ministers of promi- 
nence were John Everhart, F. R. S. Byrd, and A. A. Sellers. 

In March, 1843, a meeting was held in which annual- 
conference business was transacted, and in the fall of 

585 



586 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

1843 a similar meeting was held, a presiding elder of the 
Wabash Conference being present. Bishop H. Kumler, 
Jun., presided over the Iowa "Branch of the Wabash 
Conference" in May, 1844. On August 14, 1845, at Wil- 
liam Thompson's, in Louisa County, Bishop Russel form- 
ally organized the conference, though at the present time 
it dates its beginning back to 1844. The conference 
grew rapidly, and in 1853 was divided, the southern 
portion being named the Des Moines Conference, a 
part of which, under the name of East Des Moines, was 
reunited with Iowa Conference in 1890. In 1861 North 
Iowa Conference was formed, and this, after varied struggles 
and successes, was reunited with the original conference in 
1874. Good results have followed these consolidations. 
With an increased number of ministers who have received 
a college or seminary training, and with a settled purpose 
to enter places where permanent work can be built up, 
the prospects of the conference are steadily improving. 

Among those deceased, or no longer connected with 
the conference, who have held a prominent place, may 
be mentioned S. Weaver, William Davis, S. W. Kern, S. 
Sutton, D. Wenrich, M. Bowman, and M. S. Drury, now 
a member of California Conference. 

The Iowa Conference entered early the educational field, 
taking the first steps toward founding Western College 
within ten years after its organization. Its general church 
membership, according to the latest statistics, is 6,800. Its 
ministers number eighty-three. Among these are Bishops 
Kephart and Mills, Dr. L. Bookwalter, president of West- 
ern College, Prof. A. W. Drury, of the theological seminary, 
Dr. M. R. Drury, of the Religious Telescope, Dr. I. K. 
Statton, Dr. W. I. Beatty, W. D. Hartsough, H. E. Wil- 
liams, L. B. Hix, and others who are men of influence 
in the conference. 



OTHER CONFERENCES ORGANIZED 1835-1853 587 

The story of the toils and hardships of the early pioneers 
in this conference and elsewhere, in the work of laying 
the foundations of the Church, would possess a thrilling 
interest, and be sufficient to fill volumes. 

II. THE ST. JOSEPH CONFERENCE. 

The St. Joseph Conference, located in northern Indiana 
and southern Michigan, was formed by separation from 
the Wabash by the General Conference of 1845. A ses- 
sion of the conference was held at North Manchester, 
Indiana, which, in the absence of a bishop, was pre- 
sided over by J. M. Hershey. The first regular session, 
from which the conference takes its date, Bishop Gloss- 
brenner presiding, was held at Leffle's Church in 1846. 
The names of some of the charter members of the 
conference, recognized as leaders in the work, are J. M. 
Hershey, William Davis, Josiah Davis, J. Suman, J. Fet- 
terhofF, J. Thomas, J. B. Slight, J. Farmer, J. Freeman, 
F. L. Forbes, J. S. Todd, and R. Baker. To this number 
was added H. A. Snepp, who, after a long and faithful 
life of half a century in the ministry, has recently been 
called to the final reward. J. Thomas, now of the North 
Ohio, is one of this original number yet living. R. 
Baker, one of the first members, is living, and remains 
in connection with the conference. Many of these men 
had been for years in the service in the Wabash Confer- 
ence, and even in the Indiana before the Wabash was 
formed, and were already veterans in the toils and hard- 
ships of missionary life. J. Suman was a man of remark- 
able power as a preacher and revivalist. Next to him 
as successful laborers were J. Demunbrun, J. Babcock, 
and William Davis, men of distinguished abilities, and 
gathering rich harvests into the Church. The conference 
began with nineteen ministers and about three hundred 



588 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

in the laity. The present number of ministers, according 
to the latest statistics, is an even one hundred, of whom 
seventy-eight are itinerant and twenty-two local. The 
general membership is 10,939. Its Sunday-school enroll- 
ment for 1896 was 13,681, and its membership in its 
eighty-three young people's societies was 2,780. 

The conference has given to the Church Bishop N. 
Castle and Dr. W. M. Bell, both of whom are elsewhere 
spoken of. Among other names well known are J. F. 
Bartmess, George Sickafoose, F. Thomas, C. H. Bell, J. 
Simons, R. J. Parrett, J. L. Parks, A. J. Cummins, and 
A. M. Cummins. 

III. THE ILLINOIS CONFERENCE. 

In the year 1835 there was but a single circuit of the 
United Brethren in the State of Illinois, and that circuit 
a mission. In the same year John Dunham was appointed 
presiding elder for the State. The fertile and almost 
boundless prairies presented an irresistible attraction to 
immigration, and with the pioneer settler came the pioneer 
minister. Mr. Dunham was soon joined by Josiah Davis 
and John Hoobler. Others followed, and ten years later, 
when the Illinois Conference was formed, the names of 
twenty-one ministers were enrolled. The conference was 
formed by separation from the Wabash, as the Wabash 
itself had been from the Indiana. Bishop Pussel presided 
at this first conference, and the following are the names 
of the members : John Dunham, Josiah Terrell, J. P. 
Eckles, Pobert Baker, David Breeding, J. T. Timmons, 
Frederick Kenoyer, Alexander Long, J. T. Manderville, 
J. B. McVey, Hiram Freeman, Jacob A. Kenoyer, J. D. 
Hock, Charles Sleigh, Isaac Hesser, James Davis, George 
Brewer, Clark Jenks, B. E. Shields, James Haines, and 
Lyman Jenks. Most of these men possessed in a high 



OTHER CONFERENCES ORGANIZED 1835-1853 589 

degree the pioneer missionary spirit. John Dunham, whose 
name is frequently met, was brave, hardy, and true. See- 
ing in the broad plains of Illinois the promise of a goodly 
inheritance, he entered in to possess the land. Josiah 
Terrell, a leader in the social gaieties of his neighborhood, 
soon after his conversion began to preach. J. A. Kenoyer 
and M. Ambrose became familiar names in the annals 
of the Church. Isaac Kretzinger entered the conference at 
an early date ; a plain, earnest man, rendering the Church 
much valuable service, but intensely radical on the secrecy 
question, and going off with the radical secession. P. F. 
Smith, also for a time prominent in the conference, went 
in the same way. This conference at the first included 
all the territory now occupied by the Central Illinois and 
Rock River conferences. By the separation of these into 
independent conferences, its territory became more circum- 
scribed. It has now thirty-three ministers, all on the 
itinerant list, with a membership of 3,327. 

IV. THE WHITE RIVER CONFERENCE. 

The White River Conference was formed by separation 
from the Indiana, in 1846. The Indiana convened on 
February 30, and in accordance with the permission given 
by the General Conference of 1854 it separated itself 
into two sections, the southern part retaining the name 
Indiana, and the northern part taking the name of White 
River. Bishop Hanby presided at this conference. In 
the White River two elder's districts were formed, D. Stover 
and W. W. Richardson being chosen presiding elders. 

The first separate session of the White River Conference 
was held January 18, 1847, in Washington, Wayne County, 
Indiana, Bishop Russel presiding. Among the leading 
names at this session are found those of J. A. Ball, D. 
Stover, W. W. Richardson, and Caleb B. Witt. Mr. Witt 



590 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

was the father of William Barton Witt, M.D., who was one 
of the early missionaries of the Church in West Africa. 
In 1849, three years after the formation of the conference, 
the number of ministers was thirty-five, and 2,748 members 
were reported. Among the leaders of this conference, in 
addition to the men above named, are found the names 
of Milton Wright, J. T. Vardaman, T. Evans, Halleck 
Floyd, J. M. Kabrich, I. M. Tharp, Z. McNew, all of whom, 
with C. W. Witt, were in the General Conferences from 
1861 to 1889. 

This conference, with its excellent territory and numer- 
ous strong men, suffered more than any other of the larger 
conferences from determined radicalism. Two of its men, 
M. Wright and H. Floyd, became bishops in the radical 
church. Under the influence of strong leaders the radi- 
cal feeling had gained great strength, and a large pro- 
portion of both ministers and people w^ere carried away 
with the secession. Hartsville College, to which reference 
has elsewhere been made, was lost to the Church by sale 
under execution. 

The conference at the present time has fifty-four min- 
isters and 7,183 members. It has ninety-one Sunday 
schools, with an enrollment of 7,538. The membership 
of its young people's societies is 1,708. Among its lead- 
ing ministers at the present time are A. C. Wilmore, J. T. 
Eoberts, M. L. Bailey, D. 0. Darling, and Alonzo Myer. 

The conference is hopefully rebuilding, and there is 
before it a future of goodly promise. 

V. THE NORTH OHIO CONFERENCE. 

The North Ohio Conference was organized in the year 
1853, at Leoni, Jackson County, Michigan. Its territory 
embraces northwestern Ohio, northeastern Indiana, and 
southeastern Michigan, previously included in the San- 



OTHER CONFEBENCES ORGANIZED 1835-1853 591 

dusky and Michigan conferences. Bishop Markwood pre- 
sided at the first session. The names of ministers enrolled 
were Aaron Bowser, T. Osmun, J. Preston, John Kurtz, 
C. Crossland, John Martin, Nathan Hale, John Miller, H. W. 
Cherry, Joseph Fink, George Struble, J. Lower, J. Gear, 
R. T. Martin, and D. Holmes — fifteen in number. Of these 
the first nine have passed over the river. The lay mem- 
bership at the time of the organization was about twelve 
hundred. Through the early years of the conference some 
of those recognized as leaders were J. N. Martin, J. K. 
Alwood, Bowser, Kurtz, Fink, Gear, and Lower. The last 
two are still members of the conference, and Martin is 
deceased. Alwood went out with the secession. Among 
those best known now are S. P. Klotz, J. W. Lilly, D. B. 
Keller, C. M. Eberly, J. S. Tedrow. Keller is a member 
of the general Missionary Board, and Lilly and Keller are 
members of the Court of Appeals. 

Some of the strongest leaders in the radical movement 
were found in this conference, among them notably J. K. 
Alwood. Under this able leadership this conference suf- 
fered severely, about one-half of its ministers and people 
being carried out of the Church with the radical secession. 

VI. THE OHIO GERMAN CONFERENCE. 

The Ohio German Conference was organized October 20, 
1853, at Germantown, Ohio, Bishop Edwards presiding. It 
was formed by separation chiefly from the Miami Confer- 
ence, not in a geographical sense, but by a separate organi- 
zation of the German ministers and churches. Its territory 
includes Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, and the conference 
is permitted to enter any other State or Territory westward. 
Among its early ministers were Jacob Scholler, John 
Kreider, Christopher Flinchbaugh, George Baker, John 
Blouch, F. Schwab. Scholler was born in Alsace, Germany, 



592 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

in 1812, was converted in the old Otterbein Church, Balti- 
more, began to preach in 1840, and labored with great success 
for ten years in Pennsylvania, and afterward in Ohio until 
his death. He was distinguished as a leader among the 
Germans. He died in Dayton, Ohio, at the age of eighty-two. 

The ministers and people of this conference, as among 
the Germans generally, have long been recognized as 
efficient workers, and earnest in the support of the general 
interests of the Church. Their missionary contributions 
show a larger average per member, and their patronage 
of the German periodicals a larger percentage of the 
membership, than those of the English j)ortion of the 
Church, and give them in these respects a position above 
that of their English brethren. 

Among the most efficient of living laborers now in the 
conference are Edward Lorenz, Gottlieb Fritz, C. Streich, 
and August Schmidt. All of these were born in Germany. 
Mr. Lorenz was born in 1827 ; came to America in 1848, 
became a member of the conference in 1862, serving as a 
regular itinerant ; spent two years, from 1891 to 1893, as 
presiding elder of the mission in Germany, and on the death 
of William Mittendorf, in 1895, was elected his successor 
as editor of the German periodicals. Mr. Fritz, born 1832, 
came to America in 1851, was licensed to preach in 1859, 
has served seventeen years as presiding elder, was elected 
to the General Conference in 1869, and to every conference 
since except that of 1893. He is an earnest, robust worker 
for his conference and the Church. Mr. Streich, born in 
1839, licensed to preach in 1863, has given thirty-four 
years of continuous and efficient service to the Ohio Ger- 
man Conference. William Mittendorf, elsewhere men- 
tioned, twenty-two years editor of the German periodicals, 
a most faithful and useful servant of the Church, dying 
in 1895, was a member of this conference. 



OTHER CONFEBENGES ORGANIZED 1835-1853 593 

The conference has twenty-nine ministers, all enrolled 
as itinerants, a lay membership of 2,312, and a Sunday- 
school enrollment of 3,322. 

VII. THE AUGLAIZE CONFERENCE. 

The Auglaize Conference, for four years called the 
Maumee, was formed by separation from the Miami. The 
initial session was held at Pleasant Hill Chapel, in Mercer 
County, on September 9, 1853, Bishop L. Davis presiding. 
The charter members, twenty-seven in number, were A. 
Shingledecker, John Hill, James Spray, George Davis, 
David Davis, William Miller, Henry Snell, Ira Thomp- 
son, L. S. Farber, C. B. Whitley, William Siberry, James 
Lea, A. F. Miller, Thomas Reed, J. Wilkinson, William 
Milligan, J. Eby, William Burtch, P. B. Holden, F. B. 
Hendrix, H. Pv. Tobey, D. Bolp, A. W. Holden, E. M. 
Brown, S. L. Downey, G. S. Gibbons, T. J. Babcoke. The 
lay membership of the conference in the following year 
was 2,878. 

This conference throughout its history has had a career 
of commendable activity. Unfortunately, some of its most 
influential men held a decidedly radical attitude, and suc- 
ceeded ill so dividing both ministers and people that when 
the secession came many of them went with the seceders. 
Notwithstanding these losses, the conference is well at the 
front in its activities. It numbers at present fifty-eight 
ministers, of whom forty-five are itinerant, and 6,531 lay 
members. Its Sunday-school enrollment is 10,334, show- 
ing an unusually large percentage above the church mem- 
bership, and indicating the activity of its people in that 
work. Of young people's societies the conference has 
twenty-seven, with a membership of 1,285. 

Among those who entered the conference at various 
dates since its organization were J. L. Luttrell, E. Coun- 



594 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

seller, W. E. Bay, E. W. Wilgus, W. Z. Roberts, and J. W. 
Lower, all of whom have represented the conference in 
the recent General Conferences. Mr. Luttrell, now de- 
ceased, a few years ago WTote and published a history of 
the Auglaize Conference which has value in preserving 
many facts in permanent form. The conference has been 
especially honored in the number of missionaries it has 
furnished for the foreign field. They are Rev. W. S. Sage, 
Rev. R. N. West, Rev. and Mrs. Jacob Miller, and Miss 
Ella Schenck. 

VIII. THE ROCK RIVER CONFERENCE. 

The Rock River Conference was organized on August 19, 
1853, at Pine Creek School-house, in Ogle County, Illinois. 
Bishop L. Davis presided, and the following ministers were 
present : 'M. Clifton, A. Church, W. E. Henry, J. Dollarhide, 
William Dollarhide, S. Fenton, A. B. Frazier, J. Warner, 
W. H. Haskins, S. Kretzinger, J. Perrine, W. T. Burton, 
E. L. Church, S. F. Medler, D. S. Richards, J. Hiestand, 
Asa Coho, J. R. Baumgardner, Jacob Baumgardner, S. Healy 
— twenty in all, with nine absent. The conference was 
formed by separation from the Illinois. Its territory em- 
braces all of the northern part of the State of Illinois, 
extending to the AVisconsin line. 

For some years the work in this conference was pushed 
with much success, when unfortunate divisions arose, the 
most serious of them growing out of the secret-society 
question. Some of the ministers were intensely radical, 
and when the General Conference of 1885 took steps toward 
amending the Church Constitution, they, with others else- 
where, began to prepare the way for secession. When the 
secession came, they succeeded in carrying with them a 
large number of the people. The census of October, 1892, 
showed that those adhering to the Church had been reduced 



OTHER CONFERENCES ORGANIZED 1835-1853 595 

to 1,090. A favorable tide, however, soon set in, and in 
1896 this number had advanced to 1,471, while the Sun- 
day-school enrollment is 2,494. Its young people's societies 
include 590 names, or considerably more than one-third 
of the entire membership. This fact and the Sunday- 
school enrollment show that a young and fresh life is 
coming to the front, thus assuring a future vigorous 
growth. C. Bender and Dr. H. D. Healy were the 
representatives of this conference in the General Confer- 
ence of 1889, and Cornelius Wendle, J. Groff, and Mr. 
D. C. Overholser in that of 1893. Eev. W. M. Weekley, 
the secretary of the Church-Erection Society, is a member 
of this conference. 

IX. THE KENTUCKY CONFERENCE. 

At an early day several United Brethren families sought 
homes in Adair and other counties in Kentucky. Occa- 
sional visits were made to them by United Brethren 
ministers, among these Bishop Newcomer. The first 
organized societies were formed about 1833 by John M. 
Blair, of the Indiana Conference, on Green River, in 
central Kentucky. He was soon joined by William 
Blair, his brother. They preached in Adair and other 
counties, and numerous conversions followed. William 
Traylor and R. T. Leftwich afterward came to their aid. 

The work was supplied from the Indiana Conference 
until 1850, when Bishop Glossbrenner visited it with the 
view of organizing it into a conference. He appointed 
a meeting for this purpose in Adair County. Only the 
Blair brothers were present, but he proceeded with the 
organization, and the conference was subsequently placed 
under the care of the Board of Missions. Different min- 
isters from time to time went to this work, among them 
Jordan Antle and A. L. Best, the latter now of Southern 



596 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Missouri Conference. The work failed tlirougii many years 
to get a strong hold upon the regard of the people on 
account of the pronounced attitude of the Church on the 
subject of slavery, the cause which operated widely in 
the South with a similar result. There are at present 
connected with this conference about twenty-five organ- 
ized societies, with about twenty ministers. Among these 
are found the names of John Roe, Thomas Hadley, Wil- 
liam M. Dickens, John W. Malone, T. J. Gibson, and H. B. 
James. The conference still remains as a mission field. 



CHAPTER III 

CONFEEENCES ORGANIZED SINCE 1853 

I. THE ERIE CONFERENCE. 

The original Erie Conference, as formed by the General 
Conference of 1853, was organized in the fall of that year. 
The General Conference of 1861 divided the conference, 
and the present body retaining the name of Erie Confer- 
ence was organized at Harbor Creek, Erie County, Penn- 
sylvania, on October 16, 1862, Bishop Edwards presiding. 
The territory covered by the conference is northwestern 
Pennsylvania and western New York. The ministers 
present at this organization, thirty-two in number, were 
as follows : W. Hittenhouse, W. Cadman, G. W. Hill, J. 
Barnard, B. Haak, G. W. Sleeper, J. W. Clark, J. Hill, 
0. Badgley, D. Bolster, J. L. Chapin, E. B. Torrey, L. L. 
Hager, J. L. Range, G. W. Franklin, A. Brooks, H. C. 
Howard, W. Bates, G. Smith, J. G. Erb, G. E. Wellman, 
E. Benson, W. Mclntyre, F. H. Herrick, S. H. Smith, 
R. W. Braddock, G. A. Peters, D. Gray, J. W. Hoyt, I. Ben- 
nehoff, J. McFadden, and H. Bedow. The following, also 
members, were not present : L. Mclntyre, W. D. Ellis, 
A. Holman, W. R. King, I. N. Miller, and N. Martin. 

A number of these men are still in the active service, 
and other efficient men have been added. Among these 
are Prof. R. J. White, principal of Sugar Grove Seminary 
since its founding in 1884, spoken of elsewhere, E. Smith, 
P. E. Smith, A. Brunson, M. D. M. Altice, 0. J. Gage. 
L. L. Hager, one of the early members, has written and 

597 



598 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

published two volumes of pleasant poems on religious 
and miscellaneous subjects. 

The Erie Conference has achieved a noble record of 
service, and holds its place among the progressive con- 
ferences of the Church. The ministers have been united 
and loyal, and the radicalism which proved so disastrous 
in many places made here no appreciable impression. 
Within late years an increased effort has been made to 
occupy the cities and larger towns, and there are now 
flourishing churches in Buffalo, Erie, Pleasantville, Brad- 
ford, and other places. The seminary also is receiving 
growing attention. The number of ministers in the con- 
ference is seventy-seven, of whom sixty-three are itinerant. 
The general membership is 3,861. The Sunday-school 
enrollment is 6,702, showing a very unusual percentage 
above the church membership. 

II. THE OREGON CONFERENCE. 

Of the organization of this pioneer conference of the 
Pacific Coast, in 1855, under the courageous leadership 
of those enthusiastic and devoted men, T. J. Connor, 
and J. Kenoyer, the reader has seen an account.^ Of 
the struggles of the conference, never large in num- 
bers, to build a college, an account has also been given. 
For many years the preachers and people worked in 
good hope, looking for the day of larger things. In 
time, however, the conference became subject to the great- 
est harm through the extreme radicalism of some in high 
places. So thoroughly had the spirit of disloyalty been 
encouraged among the people that when the final crisis 
came, about one-half of the preachers and people went 
with the secession. Since then the contention over the 
college property has been a source of much trouble, though, 

^Pp. 429, 430. 



CONFERENCES ORGANIZED SINCE 1853 599 

happily, now finally settled in favor of the Church. The 
conference now numbers twenty ministers, and 1,114 in 
the laity. Among its present most influential ministers 
are J. R. Parker, B. E. Emrick, P. C. Hetzler, and C. C. 
Bell. George Sickafoose spent a number of years in the 
conference, but recently returned to the East. 

III. THE ONTARIO CONPERENCE. 

The reader has already seen that the earliest United 
Brethren ministers who visited Canada were Jacob Erb, 
afterward bishop, and J. Christian Smith. They were both 
at the time members of the original or Hagerstown Con- 
ference. This visit was made in 1825, and was undertaken 
on their own account. They preached extensively, scat- 
tering the seed of the word by the way, and years after- 
ward some of the fruits of their labor remained. Two 
years later, in 1827, Mr. Erb was appointed to what was 
then called the New York Mission, the territory included 
being western New York. After this Mr. Erb made 
occasional visits to this seat of his labors, and in 1853 
he again crossed over into Canada. 

About this time Israel Sloane was sent to Canada by 
the Board of Missions, which had then been organized, 
and a few years later, in 1856, the Canada, now Ontario, 
Conference, was formed, with six ministers and one hun- 
dred and fifty-two members. The place of meeting was 
Beverly Chapel, in Sheflield, Bishop Glossbrenner pre- 
siding. Five of the names were as follows : Israel 
Sloane, J. A. Cornell, C. Moore, A. Cornell, and A. B. 
Sherk. All these men are deceased. The present number 
of the ministers is twenty-one, of whom twelve are in the 
itinerancy. Some among these are J. P. Cowling, I. W. 
Groh, George H. Backus, J. F. Durkee, J. Mager. The 
lay membership of the conference is 1,426 ; the Sunday- 



600 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

school enrollment, 2,195. The large percentage of the 
Sunday-school membership over that of the church gives 
good promise of a larger future. This conference, with 
others, suffered much from the effects of ultra-radicalism. 
The title to all its church property being now permar- 
nently settled, the opportunities for future success will be 
greatly enlarged. 

IV. THE PAKKEKSBURG CONFERENCE. 

Men of heroic mold were they who in extending the 
work of the Virginia Conference went westward and set 
up the banners of the Church in the mountainous regions 
of western Virginia. The first of these pioneer preachers 
was Moses Michael, who came into what is now West 
Virginia in May, 1836. He began preaching in Mason 
County, on the Ohio River. On August 20, 1837, he 
organized the first church. Jacob Rhinehart and Henry 
Jones joined Mr. Michael, and the work was soon extended 
into other counties. Until the separate organization of 
the Parkersburg Conference other ministers were sent over 
from the Virginia, as presiding elders, circuit preachers, 
or missionaries, to build up the work. Among these were 
Dr. George W. Statton, Dr. Z. Warner, J. W. Perry, J. 
Bachtel, H. Lower, and I. K. Statton. Some of these 
recrossed the mountains at different times to serve the 
various charges. Others remained, thus becoming the 
nucleus of the future conference. 

The conference was organized as a separate body in 
1858, at Centerville, in Tyler County, Bishop Glossbrenner 
presiding. The charter members were J. Bachtel, Z. 
Warner, J. W. Perry, J. W. Miles, L. Hess, William James, 
Eli Martin, John P. White, and D. Engle — nine in all. 
Of these original members only one now remains, J. W. 
Miles, far advanced in years. In later years were added 



CONFERENCES ORGANIZED SINCE 1853 601 

the names of J. L. Hensley, M.D., S. J. Graham, E. Harper, 
E. Stuttler, and George W. Hensley. Mr. Bachtel had been 
an influential member of the Virginia Conference, being 
closely associated with Bishop Mark wood. Dr. Warner, 
for many years a leading figure in the General Con- 
ference, and greatly honored in his own conference, has 
been elsewhere spoken of. J, W. Perry, after rendering- 
long and distinguished service, died a little over a year 
ago, aged about seventy. Dr. J. L. Hensley retired a few 
years ago from regular itinerant work ; he now resides at 
Marion, Ohio, gives much attention to temperance and 
other reforms, and was a few years ago elected to the 
Ohio legislature. W. M. Weekley, now of the Eock River 
Conference, and church-erection secretary, gave twenty 
years of service to this conference. 

The field covered by the Parkersburg Conference is one 
of the most rugged and difficult to travel in the entire 
Church. But its men are hardy, courageous, and devoted, 
and they win success. The conference has eighty-seven 
ministers, and a general membership of 11,400, being 
surpassed in this respect only by the Allegheny Confer- 
ence. The Sunday-school enrollment is 13,683. 

V. THE KANSAS CONFERENCE. 

The Kansas Conference was organized as early as 1857. 
Its first years were those of the border-ruffianism which 
sought, by terrorism and ruthless murder, to force the 
institution of slavery upon the settlers of the then new 
Territory. In common with others who stood for freedom 
and for their rights as citizens, our people experienced 
the red baptism of blood. Their pronounced antislavery 
sentiments made them especially the objects of suspicion 
and the targets of murderous assault. 

The earliest United Brethren minister in Kansas was 



602 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

W. A. Cardwell, of the White River Conference, who settled 
near Lecompton in 1855. Here he estabhshed a society, 
and here the first United Brethren church was built. After 
him came Samuel S. Snyder, of the Allegheny Conference, 
of whose death, in 1861, by the hands of the raiders, men- 
tion has been made. In 1857 came J. S. Gingerich, also 
of the Allegheny Conference. Soon after, these were joined 
by Josiah Terrell and William Huffman, father of Dr. 
G. M. Huffman, both of the White River Conference. 
These, with several others who joined them, nine in 
all, assembled at the house of Mr. Snyder, near Law- 
rence, on October 30, 1857, where they organized the 
Kansas Conference. Bishop Edwards was present, and 
presided. Among those who came later are found the 
names of Samuel Kretzinger, H. M. Green, E. Shepherd, 
and Solomon Weaver. A number of these pioneers have 
died. Huffman and Gingerich, both quite aged, are 
living, the latter at Pasadena, California. Among those 
best known in the conference now are Dr. G. M. Huffman, 
Dr. J. H. Snyder, J. R. Meredith, E. B. Slade, F. R. 
Mitchell, Dr. C. M. Brooke, S. C. Coblentz, E. Shepherd, 
J. H. Bonebrake, and J. B. Deever. Dr. H. D. Healy, 
earlier a member of this conference, is now connected 
with the Rock River. R. Loggan, a number of years a 
prominent member, removed to Oregon, where he went 
with the seceders. 

It is difficult now, after the lapse of more than a third 
of a century, to realize the hardships and perils these 
pioneer preachers were called upon to endure. Some of 
them, as many in the Virginias, literally passed through 
fire, being often waylaid and shot at by assassins, had 
their houses broken into, and were themselves dragged 
into prison. Their persecutors sought to intimidate them 
by threats and violence, and by repeated assaults to drive 



CONFERENCES ORGANIZED SINCE 1853 603 

them out of the country. But they were brave men, 
after the true apostolic type, and continued to preach in 
the presence of armed foes, often themselves guarded by 
rifles in the hands of those who came to hear. Much of 
this experience occurred before the actual outbreak of the 
War, between the time of their organization and 1861. 

The conference has yielded freely of its ministers and 
people for the formation of other conferences, and now 
numbers fifty preachers, thirty-two of whom are itin- 
erant, with 4,151 in the laity. 

VI. THE MINNESOTA CONFERENCE. 

In the fall of 1854 Rev. Edmund Clow removed from 
Carroll County, Illinois, to Pine Creek Valley, in Winona 
County, Minnesota. Finding the people scattered about 
as sheep having no shepherd, he began at once to preach 
the word, and good results immediately followed. In the 
autumn of 1855 he attended the Rock River Conference, 
reported his work, joined the conference, was ordained by 
Bishop Edwards, and sent back to his field, which was 
recognized as Pine Creek Mission. 

The continued labors of Mr. Clow were greatly blessed, 
and among his converts in the winter of 1856-57 was 
M. L. Tibbetts, who at once began to declare the gospel 
of Christ. The Board of Missions sent to this field, in 
1855, J. W. Fulkerson, who at once began work. Others 
also came, and when the Minnesota Conference was 
organized, in the fall of 1857, by Bishop L. Davis, there 
were present these three, with John Haney and John 
Murrell. Mr. Fulkerson was made presiding elder, with 
a mission to serve, and the rest were each appointed to 
missions. 

Later came I. L. Buchwalter, J. J. Vaughn, N. E. Gard- 
ner, S. D. Kemerer, 0. A. Phillips, and J. T. AUaman, all 



604 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

of them faithful toilers in the Lord's field. The names 
of all of these became well known. Some of them have 
removed to other conferences and some are with the Master. 
Clow, Fulkerson, Tibbetts, and Haney are living, and 
remain with the conference. They are all far advanced 
in years, and have each seen much of wearing pioneer 
experience, traveling over long distances where there were 
no roads, and often exposed to all the force of high winds 
and low temperatures. Among other names now familiar 
in the working forces of the conference are N. S. Hankins, 
U. A. Cook, E. J. Reed, and I. N. Cain, missionary to Africa. 
The ministers of this conference, as of many others, in 
all the years until now found themselves practically 
debarred, by the restrictive legislation of the Church, 
from the cities and larger towns, and the fruits of their 
revivals were frequently gathered by other denominations. 
Hence their work has not reached the proportions to which 
the amount of labor expended was fairly entitled. But 
the ministers are men of courage, and a larger future 
is before them. 

VII. THE MISSOURI CONFERENCE. 

The first efi'ort to establish the United Brethren Church 
in Missouri was made in 1853, Henry Kumler, Jun., being 
in that year sent by the Board of Missions into the south- 
western part of the State. He was soon joined by J. 
Terrell and others, and in 1854 a conference was held, 
Bishop Edwards presiding. About this time the border 
war was begun by the abettors of slavery, who sought 
to force the dark institution across the line into Kansas. 
During the years of intense excitement which followed, 
the small United Brethren societies made little progress, 
and the conferences ceased to be held. 

Meanwhile, the Des Moines Conference was extending 



CONFERENCES ORGANIZED SINCE 1853 605 

its work across into the northern part of Missouri, and on 
October 18, 1858, the preachers of that conference laboring 
in Missouri convened in a regular conference at Atlanta, 
in Macon County. Bishop Edwards was present and 
organized the conference. Among the preachers present 
are found the names of Moses Michael, w4io was elected 
presiding elder, and W. P. Shanklin, John Osborn, J. May- 
field, G. H. Busby, J. H. McVey, Thomas Perkins, W. H. 
Burns, J. T. Timmons, Benjamin Wade, Jabez Harrison, 
and Alpheus Minear. This conference was considered a 
reorganization of the work in Missouri, in a different 
locality, and was called the Missouri Conference. The 
lay membership reported at this time was 348. At the 
second session, held in the spring of 1850, this number 
had increased to 809. 

Other names of ministers were soon added, as E. W. 
Carpenter, D. E. Statton, A. W. Geeslin, D. A. Beauchamp, 
William Beauchamp, Lee Fisher, A. D. Thomas, J. Ilerbert, 
and 0. P. Loutlian. Of these early members of the con- 
ference a number have died. Geeslin and Thomas went 
with the radicals. Among those now best known in the 
conference are U. P. Wardrip, President W. S. Peese, of 
York College, U. 0. Deputy, Joseph Bays, W. 0. Wallace, 
S. T. Wallace, A. M. Scovill, M. Bratcher, and I. W. McPae. 
President F. A. Z. Kumler, of Avalon College, elsewhere 
spoken of, is a layman in this conference. The confer- 
ence numbers thirty-seven preachers and 3,212 in the 
laity, with a Sunday-school enrollment of 3,413 and a 
young people's membership of 651. 

VIII. THE WISCONSIN CONFERENCE. 

The earliest pioneer of the missionary work in Wisconsin 
seems to have been G. G. Nickey, a man of quiet bearing, 
whose presence was often seen in the General Conferences 



606 THE rXITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

of other years. Mr. Lawrence in his history says that the 
first society was organized by James Davis, of whom he 
speaks as "prominent and most beloved among" the early 
missionaries. His name, however, does not appear with 
those who were present at the organization. These mis- 
sionaries had gone across into Wisconsin from Illinois. 
Their work attracted the attention of the General Confer- 
ence of 1857, and that body directed that it be formed 
into a new conference. The organization was accordingly 
effected, the first session being held at Rutland, in Dane 
County, on September, 16, 1858, Bishop L. Davis presiding. 
In the list of appointments to charges the names of twenty 
ministers appear, w^ith G. G. Nickey and S. L. Eldred as 
presiding elders. The other names are S. C. Zuck, S. 
Sutton, J. W. Reed, J. Haskins, E. S. Bunce, J. Nichols, 
S. Knox, F. Outcalt, R. Powell, N. Smith, G. Kite, ^Y. W. 
Simpkins, B. Howard, D. Harrington, E. AY. Canfield, J. 
Payne, J. B. L. Winter, R. Crozier. Five hundred and 
fifty-four members were reported. This vigorous young 
conference grew rapidly, and in 1861 it was divided, the 
southern portion retaining the name Wisconsin, and the 
remainder becoming the Fox River Conference. The two 
bodies have since been reunited. 

Many of the older members of the General Conferences 
will remember the presence of Nickey, Sutton, Eldred, and 
Reed in the sessions of that body. Sutton was a frequent 
contributor to the columns of the Beligious Telescope thirty 
years ago. Reed, now well up in years, still remains. 
Among the younger men who have acquired prominence 
are A. J. Hood, twice in the General Conference, seven 
years presiding elder, A. D. Whitney, a number of years 
elder, three times in the General Conference, and J. H. 
Richards, a graduate of Union Biblical Seminar}^, and 
member of the General Conference of 1893. The confer- 



CONFEBENCES ORGANIZED SINCE 1853 607 

ence at the present time numbers thirty-five ministers, 
of whom thirty-one are itinerants, and in the laity 2,070. 
Its Sunday-school enrollment is 2,839 ; its young people's 
societies have 776 names. 

IX. THE CALIFORNIA CONFERENCE. 

In the year 1858 Israel Sloane, whose work as a mis- 
sionary in Canada had been blessed with signal success, 
volunteered to go, at his own expense, to the Pacific 
Coast, and open a mission in California. The divine 
blessing attended his preaching, and in 1861 the General 
Conference recognized his work by directing the organi- 
zation of a conference in the Golden State, and also by 
electing Daniel Shuck as bishop for the work on the coast. 
The reader has seen that because of the AVar breaking 
out Bishop Shuck was greatly delayed in reaching his 
field. Meanwhile, Mr. Sloane was joined by other min- 
isters, and in September, 1862, an informal conference 
was held. The first regular conference, from which the 
organization is dated, was held in 1864, after the arrival 
of Bishop Shuck. 

Among the early laborers in the conference, in addi- 
tion to Mr. Sloane and Bishop Shuck, were Nelson 
Hubbard, J. Ackerson, J. W. Harrow, and C. W. Gil- 
lett, the last named still surviving. Among those now 
best known in the work are J. L. Field, T. J. Bauder, 
J. S. Pitman, Francis Fisher, A. G. Wright, and D. S. 
Shiflett. Mr. Pitman is pastor of the church in Los 
Angeles, for the church building of which the young 
people's societies are contributing money. Other churches 
are located at Sacramento, Riverside, Woodbridge, Gridley, 
and other points. San Joaquin Valley College has been 
elsewhere spoken of. 

The Church in California suffered seriously during the 



608 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

protracted, anti-secret-society agitation. Its way of suc- 
cess in the cities and larger towns, as in many places 
elsewhere, was effectually barred. Some of its ministers 
and members, less in proportion than in some other con- 
ferences, went with the seceders. With this trouble hap- 
pily ended, the conference has before it a freer field. 

X. THE DES MOINES CONFERENCE. 

The original Des Moines Conference was formed by 
separation from the Iowa Conference in the year 1853. 
In that division the northern portion of the conference 
retained the name of Iowa, and the southern part became 
the Des Moines, taking its name from the Des Moines 
River. This conference rapidly pushed its work westward, 
and in 1861 it was, in turn, divided, forming the East 
Des Moines and West Des Moines conferences. Thus 
their history flowed on in two names until, by the act 
of the General Conference of 1889, the East Des Moines 
was again united with the Iowa Conference. This union 
left two conferences in the State of Iowa, with the divid- 
ing line running north and south, instead of east and. 
west as at the first. The West Des Moines now, by the 
same act of the General Conference, dropped the prefix 
West, and took the original name Des Moines. Its ter- 
ritory is the western half of the State. 

The first separate session of the West Des Moines (now 
Des Moines) Conference, after the division of 1861, was 
held at Panora, Guthrie County, on September 12, 1862, 
Bishop Markwood presiding. Fourteen ministers attended 
this conference, as follows : William G. Eckles, E. Loggan, 
J. Simpson, E. Flaugli, S. Brooks, J. Burns, R. Armstrong, 
J. I. Baber, G. P. Fisher, J. A. Kenaston, William Jacobs, 
J. M. Dosh, J. B. Hamilton, and A. Randall. Four others 
joined at this session : J. E. Ham, M. S. Dickey, A. N. 



CONFEBENCES ORGANIZED SINCE 1853 609 

Baker, and William Jenkins. Twenty-two members were 
absent, among whom were Ira B. Eyan and J. B. Carr. 
Only three of the original members, William Jacobs, J. Simp- 
son, and J. B. Carr, are now living. The conference had 
seventeen charges and thirteen itinerants. Cooperation and 
support for Western College were pledged at this first session. 

Among other ministers in the Des Moines Conference, 
as the years were passing, were found the names of L. S. 
Grove, John and W. S. De Moss, R. Thrasher, A. H. 
Mitchell, A. Schwimley (now in Colorado), D. S. Shiflett 
(now in California), A. Corbin, and others who became well 
known. For many years past George Miller, D.D., has 
stood as the recognized head of the conference. Dr. Miller 
was born in Ohio in 1837, became a minister in the 
Auglaize Conference, transferred to West Des Moines (now 
Des Moines) in 1871 ; has been honored by his brethren 
with the office of presiding elder for twenty-four consecu- 
tive years, was elected to the General Conference of 1877, 
and to each session since, has long been a member of 
several of the general church boards, as well as of the 
conference boards, proving himself in these various rela- 
tions one of the most practical and useful men of the 
Church. Others in this conference who have come well 
to the front are L. H. Buf kin, G. 0. Porter, W. F. Cronk, 
and E. W. Curtis. The last named has been for some 
years pastor of the church in East Des Moines, and ren- 
ders a wider service as editor of the Parish Outlook. 

The Des Moines Conference has long recognized the 
right of women to proclaim the gospel of Christ, and is 
ready to concede their right to other responsible posi- 
tions. Mrs. Elizabeth De Moss, better known afterward 
as Mrs. Funkhouser, and Phebe Benton were among 
them as highly esteemed laborers. The former was the 
mother of the De Moss brothers, and cooperated with 



610 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

them eflPectually in the work of the gospel. She was 
also the grandmother of Mrs. S. J. Staves, one of the 
first two woman delegates in the General Conference in 
the Church, in the session of 1893, at Dayton, Ohio, her 
associate in this conference being Mrs. Mattie A. Brewer, 
of the Lower Wabash Conference. 

XI. THE MICHIGAN CONFERENCE. 

This conference was organized in the year 1862 at 
Matherton, Ionia County, Michigan, wdth sixteen mem- 
bers, nameh^, James Nixon, W. S. Titus, J. B. Parmelee, 
B. Hamp, J. Jacobs, G. C. Fox, W. H. Stone, J. Berry, 
J. Myers, H. Rathbun, H. T. Barnaby, J. Rider, A. Lee, 
D. Strayer, G. S. Lake, and J. Warner. Its growth for 
some years was rapid, and in 1877 it w^as divided, form- 
ing the North Michigan. Later on, the bright promise 
began to be clouded through the intensity of the anti- 
secret-society agitation, a condition which grew worse 
when the General Conference adopted measures provid- 
ing for revision. Several of its leading men were among 
the foremost in the Church in the radical movement, one 
of the number winning a bishop's seat in the radical 
church. With these local conditions, and the church 
property becoming involved in lawsuits, growth naturally 
ceased. The property question having at last been put in 
better form by the courts, it may be hoped that a brighter 
future lies ahead. 

The conference has a number of devoted and hard- 
working men, w^ho have the welfare of the Church at 
heart. Foremost among these is W. N. Breidenstine, a 
brave soldier of the War, who carries a wound received 
at the battle of Petersburg in 1864. He was ordained 
by Bishop Edwards in 1871, and has continued in the 
active ministry since, serving as presiding elder for eight 



CONFERENCES ORGANIZED SINCE 1853 611 

years, and was in the General Conference of 1893. Toil- 
ing with his brethren in the conference faithfully under 
many discouragements, he looks to the better reward 
to come. He is now serving as conference missionary 
organizer, with his residence at Grand Eapids. B. H. 
Mowers is another of the earnest toilers in this confer- 
ence. Ordained to the ministry in 1871, he has served 
the conference as pastor and presiding elder, and was in 
the General Conferences of 1885 and 1893. G. S. Lake 
was for a number of years an efficient worker in the 
Michigan Conference. James Carter, a man of much 
worth, remembered by many of the older members of 
the General Conferences, went to his final reward in 
November, 1878. 

Chief among those who went out of this conference 
and the Church with the radical secession were H. T. 
Barnaby, W. S. Titus, and B. Hamp. Mr. Barnaby and 
Mr. Titus for many years exerted considerable influence 
in the General Conference. 

XII. THE CENTRAL ILLINOIS CONFERENCE. 

The Central Illinois Conference was formed by separa- 
tion from the Illinois Conference, on September 28, 1865, 
the initial session being held in the city of Decatur, Illinois, 
Bishop Weaver presiding. The following names were 
enrolled : M. Ambrose, L. D. Ambrose, G. Wenner, A. L. 
Best, R. M. Parks, L. M. Robinson, W. Crandall, H. T. 
Van Gordon, M. T. Chew, J. Herbert, H. Hilbish, A. A. 
Shesler, J. W. Elliott, J. I. Robinson, I. Fink, I. W. Mason, 
S. P. Hoy, J. C. Ross, J. W. Fisher, A. B. Powell, D. Folk, 
John Hoobler, G. P. Fisher, F. Gorsline, H. Stoddard, I. 
Blake, W. F. Bishop, S. Swick, G. M. Freese, L. S. Cornell, 
G. W. Hall. 

This conference entered into its w^ork with good hope. 



612 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

but failing to enter the larger towns and cities, and to 
reach many other citizens of the best classes, largely 
through the limitations imposed by the rigid anti-secret- 
society legislation, much of the best opportunity for success 
was missed. A member of the conference in a letter very 
fitly says : " A rich soil, enterprising farmers and business 
men, fine railroad facilities and good markets, excellent 
free schools and colleges, and a generally intelligent people, 
had we put ourselves into true relations to the best of them 
we could have entered a most inviting field for building 
up a first-class conference." With the changed legislative 
conditions of the Church, the ministers in this field are 
now hoping for a brighter and larger future. Among its 
newer and recently added working forces are found a 
number of devoted and able preachers and pastors, among 
whom are L. Field, P. H. Wagner, D. 0. Giffin, Z. T. Hat- 
field, J. A. F. King, H. T. Athey, and R. H. Beck. The 
conference, according to the latest statistics, has a mem- 
bership of thirty-six ministers, with 3,498 in the laity 
and 4,324 in its Sunday schools. 

XIII. THE COLUMBIA RIVER CONFERENCE. 

The Columbia River Conference, originally named the 
Cascade, and then the Walla Walla, is located in eastern 
Oregon, Washington, and northw^estern Idaho. It was 
formed by separation from the Oregon Conference, and 
was organized in September, 1865. Bishop D. Shuck 
presided at the session. The early leaders in the confer- 
ence, as in the original work in Oregon, were T. J. Connor 
and J. Kenoyer. A number of the pioneers are living, 
and remain at their post in the ministry and Church. 
Kenoyer, however, went off" with the radicals. The con- 
ference at the present time has a ministerial membership 
of twenty-three, some of the best known among them 



CONFERENCES ORGANIZED SINCE 1853 613 

being G. W. Sickafoose, Homer Gallaher, J. J. Gallaher, 
and W. R. Lloyd. The conference has a general mem- 
bership of 1,118, with 951 in its Sunday schools, and 290 
in its young people's societies. The conference has sought 
to encourage church education, but the experiment with 
Washington Seminary, at Huntsville, has resulted in em- 
barrassment, the church membership being insufficient to 
provide the requisite financial support. 

XIV. THE TENNESSEE CONFERENCE. 

In the year 1856 John Ruebush, of the Virginia Con- 
ference, was appointed by the Board of Missions to visit 
east Tennessee. He at once began preaching, and, with 
the divine blessing attending his word, considerable num- 
bers were converted. He formed several societies, estab- 
lished a number of regular appointments, and began also 
the work of church building. "With the breaking out of 
the War the work was much hindered, and for a time 
suspended. Later Mr. Ruebush resumed his preaching, 
and A. E. Evans and D. A. Beauchamp came to his 
help. In 1866 Bishop Glossbrenner met these three 
men in Otterbein Chapel, Greene County, Tennessee, and 
organized the first formal conference. Enos Keezel and 
R. J. Bishop were received as licentiates. J. W. Bowen 
was added in 1868, and J. A. Small in 1869. Jonathan 
Bales and his wife were the first to join the United 
Brethren Church in Tennessee. Other ministers, as time 
passed, were added, as Joseph Waldorf, Edwin Horner^ 
Richard Owen, and later J. K. and Mrs. A. L. Billheimer. 
In 1877 the conference founded Edwards Academy, at 
Greenville, Tennessee. In 1881 it was removed to White 
Pine, where it is just now entering upon a larger pros- 
perity. An account of the institution has been given 
elsewhere in this volume. 



614 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

About two years ago a movement which had been for 
some time in process of development began to take defi- 
nite form, resulting in considerable additions both of 
ministers and laymen to the United Brethren Church. 
The greater number of these came from the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, some from the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, and a few from other denominations. 
Those coming from the Methodist churches were attracted 
chiefly by the milder form of episcopal government in 
the United Brethren Church. There was for them no 
possible inducement in material or worldly considerations. 
They could not look for larger salaries, or easier fields of 
labor, or lighter sacrifices, nor was the prospect of official 
promotion better than in the churches from which they 
came. Nor could they bring with them any of the church- 
houses or other property which they had aided in building. 
No thought or hope of this kind was entertained ; much 
less was any effort made to do so. Influenced by prin- 
ciple alone, and in the face of present loss, they chose to 
cast in their lot with us, and they have addressed them- 
selves earnestly to the work in their new relations. About 
twenty-five ministers in all, with a considerable number 
of members, have thus connected themselves with the 
United Brethren. Among the leading ministers in the 
movement are Dr. T. C. Carter, Rev. W. L. Richardson, 
J. D. Droke, and others. They have been given a cordial 
welcome by the United Brethren Church, not in any spirit 
of proselytism, for no proselyting was done, nor from any 
desire to reap where others have sown, but with an open 
heart and door to receive any persons who love our com- 
mon Lord and desire to cast their lot with us. 

The latest statistics of the Tennessee Conference show 
a membership of twenty-three itinerants and the same 
number of local ministers, and 1,857 communicants. The 



CONFERENCES ORGANIZED SINCE 1853 615 

Sunday-school enrollment is 2,105. Two new conferences 
have also been formed within the past two years, which 
are to be spoken of farther on. 

XV. THE EAST GERMAN CONFERENCE. 

The East German Conference was formed by separation 
from the East Pennsylvania. Its first separate session was 
held March 4, 1870, Bishop Weaver presiding, assisted by 
Bishops Glossbrenner and Dickson. The names of twenty- 
eight ministers were enrolled, as follows : John Binckley, 
J. W. Boughton, John G. Clair, L. W. Craumer, J. B. 
Daugherty, D. S. Early, S. Etter, L. Fleisher, J. D. A. 
Garman, H. H. Gelbach, H. E. Hachman, D. Hoffman, 
J. W. Kunkel, Job Light, John Lowery, J. H. Mark, John 
Meyer, S. V. Mohn, Simon Noll, J. Runk, J. Ruhl, Jacob 
Schropp, James Shoop, A. Steigerwald, G. Stoll, D. Strick- 
ler, Gideon Weidman, Joseph Young. 

Gelbach, Hoffman, and Daugherty were regarded as 
among the leaders of this conference in its earlier years. 
The first two have died, and Daugherty has returned to 
the East Pennsylvania Conference. Hoffman was ordained 
a minister in 1851, and gave thirty -seven years of faithful 
labor to the ministry. Gelbach was a man of impressive 
personal presence, an able preacher and successful winner 
of souls. He died in 1886. Job Light was a man of 
slight figure, but a strong and successful preacher, whether 
serving as presiding elder or as a pastor. He died sud- 
denly in 1889 while conducting an extensive revival in his 
church in Reading. Henry Schropp and John Doerkson 
were each men of power and greatly esteemed. Doerkson, 
born in Germany, was a man of superior culture, young and 
progressive in spirit, and a fresh, vigorous preacher. Jacob 
Fritz, ordained in 1857, preached for thirty -eight years, 
leaving a good record of industry and devotion. 



616 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

The East German Conference has now sixty-four preach- 
ers, of whom forty-nine are in the itinerancy. Its general 
membership is 6,552. Of these nearly one-half are enrolled 
in the young people's societies, the number being 3,107. 
Its Sunday-school enrollment is similarly large, being 
10,971. These facts indicate a large promise for the 
future of the conference. Among the present active force 
in the conference are still found some of those who assisted 
in the organization, as Mark, Shoop, Hunk, and Noll, the 
last now old, and earlier a very successful evangelist. Among 
the younger men are W. H. Uhler, C. S. Miller, A. Graul, 
and S. M. Hummel. The conference, as a body, possesses 
tlie stanch elements requisite for solid and durable work. 

XVI. THE NEOSHO CONFERENCE. 

The Neosho Conference, spread out over the fertile fields 
of the Neosho Valley, is the fair daughter of the Kansas 
Conference. Its first separate session was held on April 
16, 1870, Bishop Dickson presiding. The place of meeting 
was Greeley, in Anderson County, Kansas. The names 
of nineteen ministers were enrolled, and there were 
three hundred and thirty-nine in the general membership. 
The ministers were as follows : J. W. Arnold, S. E. Ger- 
many, S. G. Elliott, A. P. Floyd, William James, John 
Osborn, A. Prescott, J. Hiley, W. B. Walker, John Buck- 
master, J. D. England, J. P. Evans, J. S. Gingerich, J. 
Morehead, J. Picket, J. P. Reed, J. F. Statton, Wilham 
Folk, D. Wenrich. 

Among the early company of laborers, Gingerich, Evans, 
Wenrich, Piley, and James are remembered as natural 
leaders. Gingerich possessed the genuine pioneer spirit. 
Starting from the East early in life, his name has appeared 
at different times in connection with the Western confer- 
ences. He now waits, as the reader has seen, in advanced 



CONFEBENCES ORGANIZED SINCE 1853 617 

old age, in a city near the western ocean, for the Master's 
final call. Among other men who have come well to the 
front are J. K. Spencer, G. H. Hinton, J. R. Chambers, 
C. H. Jones, N. L. Vezie, J. C. Ross. J. R. Evans, of this 
conference, was a member of the Church Commission on 
revision of the Constitution and Confession of Faith. 

This conference has made fine progress in advancing 
its work. It now has forty-eight ministers, of whom 
thirty-four are in the itinerancy. Its enrolled membership 
is 3,470. There are forty-two young people's societies, 
with a membership of 1,243, and 4,239 are in its Sunday 
schools. The conference gives fine promise of a greatly 
enlarged future. 

XVII. THE ELKHORN AND DAKOTA CONFERENCE. 

In 1871 a mission conference was organized in South 
Dakota and named the Dakota Conference, and in 1882 
the Elkhorn Conference was formed in northeast Nebraska. 
In 1885 these two bodies were united, forming the Elkhorn 
and Dakota Conference. Bishop Kephart presided at the 
session. The roll of ministers of the two conferences 
embraced thirty-one names, and there were six hundred 
and forty in the laity. Among the ministers were D. D. 
Weimer, E. R. Richmond, W. H. Post, T. P. Brown, W. H. 
Burns, E. D. Cowles, J. W. Tucker, and N. B. Moore. 

This conference became one of the true mission fields 
of the Church, and other ministers soon entered upon its 
work, as S. W. Koontz, of the Minnesota Conference, L. T. 
John, of the Iowa, and J. E. Leonard, of the St. Joseph. 
Judge J. W. Tucker was equally at home in the pulpit, on 
the stump, and as attorney for the Indians in those 
regions. Mr. Weimer, deceased, is remembered as one of 
the bravest of men in facing the pitiless storms of the 
prairies, in meeting his appointments as presiding elder. 



618 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

Mr. Richmond was blind. His wife accompanied him, and 
read for him the Scriptures and other books. Slie was 
inspired to a special zeal by this service, and after his 
decease was licensed as a preacher in the conference. 
His frequent rendering of "Beulah Land" is remembered 
as peculiarly pathetic and beautiful. 

The work in this conference, as in many others, has 
perhaps in too large proportion been given to the rural 
districts, performing indeed a great service to many who 
otherwise would be neglected, but failing to build up 
the Church rapidly into strength. All the hardships 
peculiar to new countries the ministers have had to 
meet, but they have toiled in hope, and the harvest 
will follow. 

XVIII. THE COLORADO CONFERENCE. 

The Colorado Conference was organized on April 15, 
1872, by Bishop Dickson. Only three names were enrolled 
on the conference list, namely William H. McCormick, 
St. Clair Ross, and A. Hartzell. Other names were soon 
added, and others further on. Among these were L. S. 
Cornell, D.D., E. J. Lamb, J. W. Zimmerman, A. 
Schwimley, A. Griffith, J. P. Wilson, C. M. Dilly, and 
others. Several of these, after many years of earnest 
service, remain in the active work of the conference. 
McCormick, one of the original three, Lamb, Zimmerman, 
and Schwimley hold foremost places among their breth- 
ren. It is to be regretted that Ross and Hartzell thought 
it best to cast their lot with the radicals. Mr. Ross was 
sent by the Board of Missions to Colorado in 1869. He 
died in October of 1896. His brothers, J. C. and Daniel 
J. B. Ross, are ministers in the Neosho Conference. Hart- 
zell also is dead. Dr. Cornell, for over twenty years in 
active service, resides in Denver, much esteemed by his 



CONFEBENCES ORGANIZED SINCE 1853 619 

brethren. Eufus and Mrs. Clark, whose names stand in 
perpetual honor, in connection with the training school 
in Africa, are lay members of the Church at Smith's 
Chapel, Denver. 

The conference has wisely planted its work in the towns 
and cities, and has churches at Denver, Pueblo, Colorado 
Springs, Berthoud, Left Hand, St. Yrain, and Loveland. 

XIX. THE EAST NEBRASKA CONFERENCE. 

In the year 1860 several United Brethren families found 
homes near the village of Plattsmouth, near the mouth 
of the river Platte. It 1864 William H. Shepherd and 
H. Loggan located in the neighborhood, and regular 
preaching was provided for. In the same year W. P. 
Caldwell and E. J. Lamb, zealous laymen from Iowa, 
found homes on Swan Creek, in Saline County. They 
began to hold prayer-meetings, and before very long 
were regularly licensed preachers. In 1866 E. W. John- 
son settled in Seward County, and at once began preach- 
ing. In 1870 S. Austin, of the Illinois Conference, located 
in York County, and soon began successful work. Thus 
were additions made from time to time, until in the year 
1873 there were fourteen ministers, with seventy -four 
appointments, and about fifty organized classes, and 841 
members. In that year, on October 30, Bishop Gloss- 
brenner visited them, and organized the Nebraska Con- 
ference. The ministers enrolled in the membership 
were W. P. Caldwell, S. Austin, E. W. Johnson, W. H. 
Shepherd, H. L. Spofford, Ives Marks, J. McDougal, H. 
Ackaret, J. M. Ward, P. E. Elliott, W. S. Spooner, I. N. 
Martin, I. Cole, and S. Fenton. 

Thus organized, these ministers in a spirit of broad 
hopefulness sowed their seed and thrust their sickles into 
the harvest, so that in 1878, five years after the organi- 



620 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

zation, the membershij) had grown to 2,394, and the 
number of ministers to about fifty. The work had ex- 
tended westward, and it was deemed advisable to divide 
the conference, and the East and West Nebraska con- 
ferences were formed. Thirty-three ministers remained 
with the East Nebraska, among w^hom were the vet- 
eran founders of the conference, Simeon Austin, who 
afterward joined the radicals, William P. Caldwell, and 
E. W. Johnson. Four licentiates were received, and the 
conference started on its new mission with thirty-seven 
ministers. The conference has been active in building 
churches and ^^arsonages, though many of its organized 
societies are still without churches. It has gathered a 
membership of 4,012, with forty-eight ministers, of whom 
thirty-nine are in the itinerancy. It has forty-three young 
people's societies, wdth a membership of 1,659 ; its Sunday 
schools have an enrollment of 4,327. The conference 
suffered considerably from the radical movement, but its 
losses are much more than made up. 

XX. THE WEST NEBRASKA CONFERENCE. 

The history of the founding of the Church in Nebraska 
belongs to the East and the West conferences alike. In 
the spirit of the truest missionaries the pioneer preachers 
did their work, amid the usual difficulties pertaining to 
pioneer life, but meeting with much cheering success. 
The final session of the original Nebraska Conference was 
held at Fairbury, in Jefferson County, on August 21, 1878, 
Bishop Wright presiding. The ministers who had pushed 
farther into the newer fields, and others who elected to 
go with them, were as follows : Isaac Belknap, Charles 
G. Bowers, Jacob Bremser, John J. Haskins, Charles C. 
Kellogg, Edmond L. Kenoyer, Obadiah Knepper, John 
McDougal, I. N. Martin, Thomas J. Parvin, William S. 



CONFERENCES ORGANIZED SINCE 1853 621 

Spooner, John W. Ward, S. C. Abbott, Byron M. Allen, 
David Edgerton, J. H. Fee, Josiali D. Fye, John T. 
Squiers, and George Fembers. The number in the laity 
falling to West Nebraska Conference was 605. Numerous 
changes have taken place in the ministerial list since 
the formation, in 1878, by removals and deaths, with a 
few withdrawals to the radicals, while new men have 
from time to time come in. Among those now holding 
prominent recognition in the conference are FL W. True- 
blood, D.D., T. B. Cannon, J. J. Smith, C. H. Polhemus, 
and others. 

This conference early entered the educational field, 
founding Gibbon Collegiate Institute, but transferring its 
interest afterward to York College, as elsewhere spoken of. 
The conference has advanced in general membership to 
2,235, with thirty-six ministers. It has twenty-four young 
people's societies, enrolling 701 members, and about 3,400 
scholars and teachers enrolled in its Sunday schools, a 
number over fifty per cent, larger than that of the 
church membership. This fact gives good promise of 
future increase in the Church. 

XXI. THE NORTH MICHIGAN CONFERENCE. 

The North Michigan Conference was formed by separa- 
tion from the Michigan Conference, at a session held in 
Waterloo, Michigan, September 6, 1877. Bishop Weaver 
presided. The names of seventeen ministers were enrolled, 
some of whom were A. Rossman, J. Beechtler, W. T. Bald- 
win, H. H. Maynard, J. A. F. King, and G. A. Bowles. 

The field occupied by the conference was strictly mis- 
sionary ground, with all the usual attendant conditions. 
It received such support as the Missionary Board was able 
to give, and for some years the work prospered encour- 
agingly. But, unfortunately for its steady prosperity, the 



622 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

conference became, during the period of the radical 
troubles, a theater of special disturbance. The parent 
conference, the Michigan, had long been dominated by 
men of extreme radical principles, and their influence, 
some of them becoming members of the North Michigan, 
gave to this conference the same general character as 
that of the Michigan. As a consequence, when the seces- 
sion of 1889 occurred, a considerable number of ministers 
went with the radicals, carrying with them a proportionate 
number of the laity, in some instances nearly entire con- 
gregations, together with the houses they occupied. The 
litigations growing out of these conditions have been 
elsewhere referred to. 

The disintegration thus wrought in this conference 
proved greatly destructive to its interests. But the min- 
isters are working earnestly and hopefully in rebuilding 
their Zion, and it may be hoped that the future holds 
for them a new era of prosperity. Among their present 
leaders in the work are F. M. McClintic, H. McNish, 
M. S. Bovey, and M. Markham. A number of young 
men of good promise are enlisted among their working 
forces. The present membership of the conference is, 
ministers, twenty-seven, of whom twenty-three are itin- 
erant, and laity, 967. Its Sunday-school enrollment is 
1,394, and that of its young people 361. 

XXII. THE CENTRAL OHIO CONFERENCE. 

The Central Ohio Conference, as suggested by the name, 
is situated in the central part of Ohio, with Columbus, 
the State capital, nearly at its geographical center. This 
conference was organized on September 4, 1878. It was 
not, like nearly all other conferences west of the Alle- 
ghanies, originally a mission field, but was formed by 
the union of portions of two old and established confer- 



CONFEJRENCES OBOANIZED SINCE 1853 623 

ences, the Sandusky and the Scioto, the object being to 
secure greater convenience of pastoral service. 

The enabling act of the General Conference of 1877 
having been complied with by the Sandusky and Scioto 
conferences, the ministers of the sections which were to be 
combined assembled in the college chapel at Westerville, 
and were formally organized under the name of the Central 
Ohio Conference. Bishop Dickson presided, and the names 
of fifty-six ministers were enrolled on the conference record. 
Some of the more prominent among these were Ex-Bishop 
Hanby, E. Yandemark, J. B. Resler, H. A. Thompson, 
J. S. Mills, B. M. Long, J. W. Sleeper, J. A. Crayton, 
D. Bonebrake, W. Brown, W. G. Mauk, W. J. Davis, and 
A. Snider. Of the original members several have died, 
others have removed elsewhere, and some went with 
the seceders, so that of the fifty-six only eighteen now 
remain in the conference. The lay membership included 
in the districts as united was 3,598. This number 
has advanced to 4,974, and the present ministerial 
force is forty -nine, thirty-three of these being in the 
itinerancy. Among the later accessions to this confer- 
ence is Dr. T. J. Sanders, president of Otterbein Uni- 
versity. A. E. Davis, W. 0. Fries, I. L. Oakes, J. P. 
Stewart, A. E. Wright, and A. J. Wagner are some of the 
leading pastors among the younger men of the confer- 
ence. 

This conference is peculiarly honored in having located 
within its bounds Otterbein University, the oldest of the 
educational institutions of the Church. The influence of 
the college upon the conference as a formative force has 
been very marked. The conference has several flourishing 
churches, as at Westerville, Columbus, Gallon, and other 
places. In its work among the young people it enrolls 
1,131 members, and in the Sunday schools 5,721. 



624 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

XXIII. THE NORTHWEST KANSAS CONFERENCE. 

This vigorous body, occupying the northwestern part of 
Kansas, is a natural outgrowth of the Kansas Conference. 
The conference was organized on August 6, 1879, at Chfton, 
in Washington County, holding its first session jointly 
with the parent conference. The name at the first was 
West Kansas Conference, which was retained until 1893, 
when it became Northwest Kansas, the southwestern part 
of the State being occupied by the newly organized South- 
west Kansas Conference. Twenty-three names were enrolled 
at the organization in 1879, as follows : E. Shepherd, 
F. R. S. Byrd, J. Knight, J. McKee, C. U. i\lcKee, J. W. 
Bean, J. H. Bloyd, J. J. Burch, W. G. Lewis, M. Jennings, 
L. D. Wimmer, D. Brookhart, AVilliam Horton, J. L. 
Lee, D. Boone, Robert Wilson, AV. H. Willoughby, J. 
Mason, G. W. Miller, D. Waltmer, H. W. Goss, J. E. 
French, J. M. Putney. 

The conference early felt the need of providing educa- 
tional advantages within the Church for its young people, 
and in 1880 organized Gould College. For six years the 
institution was maintained with fair success, but the 
resources being insufficient to warrant continuance it was 
suspended, the conference subsequently cooperating with 
a college founded at Enterprise, Kansas, which has also 
since been discontinued. The long-prevailing financial 
stress of the country, and the numerical insufficiency of 
the membership to support enterprises necessarily ex- 
pensive, and not any lack of interest or zeal on the part 
of those undertaking them, led inevitably to these results. 

The conference has toiled successfully in the field of 
soul-saving, its present membership being 3,824, with 
thirty-six ministers, of whom thirty-three are in the 
itinerant ranks. Its Sunday-school membership is 6,018, 
and that of its young people's societies forty-five, with a 



CONFEBENCES ORGANIZED SINCE 1853 625 

membership of 1,567. The activity of the Sunday schools 
and young people's organizations gives large promise for 
the future. 

XXIV. THE ARKANSAS VALLEY CONFERENCE. 

The Arkansas Valley Conference is located partly in 
southern Kansas and partly in Oklahoma Territory. It 
was organized in October, 1881, by Bishop Kephart, at 
Otterbein Chapel, near Sedgwick City, in Sedgwick County, 
Kansas. Its territory is in part that of the former Osage 
Conference. In 1893 it parted with a portion of its field 
and people to form the Southwest Kansas Conference. 

Twenty-six names of ministers were enrolled at the time 
of organization. Some of the original members were J. H. 
Snyder, P. B. Lee, T. H. Watts, R. W. Parks, George Gay, H. S. 
Riegel, and D. S. Henninger. Among other well-known 
names that have been added since are George Kettering, 
S. Garrigus, W. L. Hinshaw, J. A. Beltz, and F. P. Smith. 

This conference has attained a most encouraging pros- 
perity. Its territory is among the newer districts occupied 
by the Church, where population changes rapidly, and 
yet it has gathered a membership of 3,397, with fifty-three 
ministers, of whom thirty-nine are in the itinerancy. The 
Sunday-school enrollment is 4,393. There are forty young 
people's societies, with a membership of 1,170. With the 
early occupancy of a country which is destined to have 
a large population, this conference possesses a great oppor- 
tunity, of which it will doubtless fully avail itself. The 
growth to which it has already attained within the short 
period since its organization is a prophecy as to its future. 

XXV. THE SOUTHERN MISSOURI CONFERENCE. 

The Southern Missouri is one of the more recently 
formed conferences, having been organized on November 

40 



626 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

10, 1881. Its first sessiou was held at Deer Creek Chapel, 
in Bates County, Bishop Kephart presiding. The territory 
of this conference, separated from the Neosho, embraces 
all the country south of the Missouri River, within the 
State of Missouri. The names of sixteen ministers were 
enrolled at the organization : S. Brown, G. Crouse, Ben- 
jamin Duck, J. R. Evans, J. S. Gingerich, J. K. Glassford, 
E. L. Joslin, W. F. Miller, J. R. Reed, J. Riley, R. G. 
Rankin, J. F. Stephens, A. Spence, 0. F. Snow, J. T. 
Timmons, and R. C. Thomas. The lay membership com- 
prised five hundred and nineteen names. From this it 
is apparent that there were no strong congregations, and 
the ministers entered upon their work as missionaries in 
the strictest sense. But the conference has prospered, and 
in the sixteen years of its existence has nearly trebled 
its membership, the present number of communicants 
being about 1,450, with twenty-five ministers, of w^hom 
thirteen are itinerants. The Sunday-school enrollment is 
1,263. 

]\Ir. Joslin and Mr. Thomas represented this conference 
in the General Conference in the noted sessions of 1885 
and 1889, and A. L. Best, S. R. Thom, and ]\Ir. A. L. 
Bosley in that of 1893. R. C. Thomas has proved him- 
self a faithful servant of the conference, having been its 
secretary since its organization. The encouraging growth 
in the general membership of this conference is an indica- 
tion of the fidelity of its ministers and a proof that the 
divine blessing has rested upon their work. 

XXVI. THE EAST OHIO CONFERENCE. 

The conference now bearing the name of East Ohio 
occupies the territory of the historical Muskingum Con- 
ference, one of the noblest of the early conferences west 
of the Alleghany Mountains. The Muskingum may be 



CONFERENCES ORGANIZED SINCE 1853 627 

spoken of as a strictly original conference, not having 
been formed by separation from any other. It consisted, 
in its beginnings, of the hardy pioneer ministers who 
crossed the mountains, settled in that section of Ohio 
which is watered by the Muskingum River, and began 
preaching the gospel to their fellow-settlers. The confer- 
ence was organized as early as 1818, by Bishop Newcomer, 
at the house of Joseph Naftzgar, in Harrison County, Ohio, 
its territory extending across into western Pennsylvania, 
embracing that now occupied by the Allegheny Conference 
until 1833, when the portion of the conference lying in 
Pennsylvania was transferred to the Pennsylvania Con- 
ference. 

Among the early members in the history of this con- 
ference are Matthias Bortsfield, Abraham Forney, Joseph 
Naftzgar, Henry G. Spayth, Henry Errett, James Johnston, 
J. Crum, Christian Berger, and John Bash. 

The Muskingum Conference grew in strength, and in 
1853 it was divided, the "Western Reserve Conference being 
formed. The latter conference had an honorable history 
until the year 1886, when the two bodies were again 
united under the name of the East Ohio Conference. As 
such it has advanced to the position of one of the larger 
conferences of the Church, its present general member- 
ship being 9,262. It has 132 organized churches, with 
ninety-four ministers, of whom sixty-eight are in the itin- 
erant ranks. It has seventy-two young people's societies, 
with a membership of 2,891, and its Sunday-school enroll- 
ment is 11,376. 

Among the members of the old Muskingum Conference 
were Bishop J. "Weaver and Dr. B. F. Booth, one still 
with us, the other with the Master. Among those in 
later years representing the Muskingum and "Western 
Reserve in the General Conference, and afterward the 



628 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

East Ohio, were Dr. Booth, S. W. Koontz, J. M. Poulton, 
J. N. Lemasters, A. Brazee, J. G. Baldwin, John Noel, 
D. W. Sprinkle, W. B. Leggett, J. Cecil, W. A. Airhart, 
R. Watson, and W. 0. Siffert. The conference is full of 
vigor and life, is occupying the cities and larger towns, 
some of them with very handsome churches, and will 
hold its place in line with the most aggressive confer- 
ences of the Church. 

XXVII. THE MARYLAND CONFERENCE. 

The Maryland Conference, while occupying largely the 
territory in which some of the early fathers of the Church 
spent most of their labors, takes its place among the 
newer of the conferences. Territorially it embraces the 
District of Columbia and nearly all of the State of Mary- 
land, except the city of Baltimore, which is divided between 
the Pennsylvania and East German conferences. Under 
the enabling act of the General Conference of 1885, the 
Maryland Conference was organized at Keedysville, Mary- 
land, on March 4, 1887, Bishop Weaver presiding. Until 
that time its territory had formed a part of the Virginia 
Conference since the separate existence of that body, from 
1830. Its earlier history, therefore, is part of the history 
of that venerable conference, and, beyond that, of the 
original or Hagerstown Conference. 

The new conference as organized placed upon its roll 
of ministers twenty-one names. Among them were A. M. 
Evers, J. W. Hicks, J. W. Kiracofe, J. K. Nelson, C. M. 
Hott, C. I. B. Brane, S. K. Wine, S. H. Snell, W. L. Martin, 
W. 0. Fries, H. H. Font, G. J. Roudabush. A number 
of these names are now found on the rolls of other con- 
ferences, and some are recorded on high. Mr. Brane, now 
of the East Pennsylvania, elected by the General Conference 
of 1893 as general secretary of the Church-Erection Society, 



CONFEBENCES ORGANIZED SINCE 1853 629 

C. M. Hott, deceased, and L. 0. Burtner, a later accession, 
missionary in Africa, have been elsewhere spoken of. 

The conference lost a considerable number of its mem- 
bers who went out with the secession of 1889, but is in 
excellent working condition. It has twelve ministerial 
charges, with thirty-five organized churches and over 
three thousand members, and a Sunday-school enroll- 
ment of nearly thirty-six hundred. Among its churches 
is the recently organized mission church in Washington 
City, the noble fruit of Mr. Brane's zeal and industry, 
and of which J. E. Font is the present successful pastor. 
Many of the churches are located in those fine old 
counties of Washington and Frederick, strictly classic 
ground. Here the voices of Otterbein, Boehm, Guething, 
and Newcomer were familiarly heard. The city of Balti- 
more would seem to belong naturally to this conference, 
but the old Otterbein Church, of which Otterbein was for 
nearly forty years pastor, began to receive its pastors at 
an early date from the Pennsylvania Conference, and 
continued to do so until the organization of the East 
German Conference, since w^hich time that conference has 
supplied its pulpit. The other churches in the city, as 
before stated, belong to the Pennsylvania and East Ger- 
man conferences. 

XXVIII. THE SOUTHWEST KANSAS CONFERENCE. 

Among the latest of all the annual conferences organ- 
ized at this writing is the Southwest Kansas. Its terri- 
tory lies in the southwestern part of Kansas, and that 
portion of Oklahoma immediately south. It was organized 
on July 10, 1893. Bishop Mills presided at this opening 
session, and the following names were enrolled : H. S. 
Riegel, E. R. Myers, C. C. Braden, Joel Corley, G. M. 
Beltz, M. M. Thomas, Ira Trimble, G. W. Leitner, J. Mor- 



630 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

rison, S. W. Foulk, J. Burgoine, C. H. McGrath, A. Burrill, 
R. J. Eubank, W. H, Sapp, 0. P. Myers, E. England— 
seventeen names in all. The lay membership of the 
conference embraced about nine hundred, which has since 
considerably advanced. A portion of the country, that 
in Oklahoma, being but very recently opened up for 
settlement, is largely occupied by a transient population, 
but few having yet settled down to permanent residence. 
With constantly changing congregations the work of solid 
church building is necessarily much interrupted. Yet a 
number of very substantial societies attest the industry 
and faithfulness of these missionary pastors. With such 
men as Eiegel, Foulk, Thomas, Morrison, and others 
pressing forward the work, we may hope for large pros- 
perity for this conference. In Oklahoma especially the 
workers of this conference have the advantage of being 
early on the ground, and fidelity to the service of the 
Church and the great Master will lead to excellent results. 

XXIX. THE CHICKAMAUGA CONFERENCE. 

The latest conferences organized, both under the auspices 
of the Board of Missions, are in Tennessee. In March, 
1896, Bishop Castle organized, at Chattanooga, the Chicka- 
mauga Conference. Seven preachers were present. In the 
assignment of work B. B. Bryant was elected presiding 
elder, and H. Huston superintendent. The conference is 
colored, and its mission will be to the colored people of 
that portion of Tennessee. The work is wholly mission- 
ary, and it is hoped that with the blessing of God resting 
upon it precious results may be attained. 

XXX. THE TENNESSEE RIVER CONFERENCE. 

The very latest of all the conferences formed at this 
writing is the Tennessee River Conference. The region it 



CONFERENCES ORGANIZED SINCE 1853 631 

occupies is chiefly western Tennessee. The conference was 
organized in the Methodist Episcopal church at Parsons, 
Tennessee, on November 26, 1896, Dr. W. M. Bell, mis- 
sionary secretary, presiding. Seven preachers were present 
and enrolled in the organization. Two presiding-elder's 
districts — mission districts — were formed, and F. M. 
Morgan and U. B. Crowell were chosen presiding elders. 
Dr. T. C. Carter, superintendent of the work in Tennessee, 
was present and assisted in the organization. A mem- 
bership of about one hundred and fifty is represented by 
this conference. The outlook for this new conference is 
regarded as altogether hopeful. 

XXXI. THE FOREIGN CONFERENCES. 

The work in Germany, Africa, China, and Japan has 
been referred to at length in the pages relating to the 
Home, Frontier, and Foreign Missionary Society and 
the Woman's Missionary Association, to which account the 
reader is referred. It will be in place here, nevertheless, 
to add something regarding the statistics of the work in 
Germany and Africa. 

1. The Germany Conference. 

The work in Germany, commenced in 1869, has now 
a membership of 991, with ten ministers, all in active 
service. There are twenty-three organized societies, and 
a Sunday-school enrollment of 655. There are ten young 
people's societies, with a membership of 160. Some of 
the ministers are Heinrich Barkemeyer, presiding elder, 
Bernhard Barkemeyer, Matthias Eichmiller, Friedrich 
Spiegel, Friedrich Holzschuher, August Hanke, and Karl 
Kuhn. The work proceeds under great difficulties, being 
constantly embarrassed by the limitations put upon it by 
some of the local governments, the state church having 



632 THE rXITEB BBETHBEX IX CHE 1ST 

almost absolute control. Xevertheless, the ministers toil 
in hope, and the people whom they gather into the Church 
are earnest and spiritual. The conference was organized 
on December 10, 1879, in Lobenstein Eeuss, by Missionary 
Secretary Flickinger, bishop pro tern. 

2. Tlie Sherbro Conference. 

The Sherbro Conference, representing the united work 
of the two missionary societies, reports in the last annual 
statement sixteen ministers and a general membership of 
5,662. The conference was organized in 1884 by Dr. 
Flickinger. This field has been so fully treated in its 
appropriate place that nothing further needs to be added 
here. 

S. The Work in Japan and China. 

No formal organization under the name of a conference 
has yet been effected in the mission in Japan. And yet 
the work, under the careful supervision of Dr. Irie, has 
been very effectively organized, and is being pressed 
forward with most gratifying results. The reports at this 
writing show that about one hundred members have been 
gathered in due form into the Church, and the number 
is constantly increasing. Seven ministers, all native Jap- 
anese, are engaged in the work. They labor in a spirit 
of deep consecration and with great faith and spiritual 
enthusiasm. 

In the work in China, so recently begun, twelve converts 
were reported in the latest statistics. 



CONCLUSION 

This volume cannot be closed without recording once 
more a sincere regret that some of the ministers and 
people of the Church saw fit, several years ago, to sever 
their connection with it, and to form an independent 
denomination. It is believed that the reasons for taking 
this step will not bear the test of time, and that many 
of those who have gone out will by and by come to hold 
the same position to which thousands in the Church had 
earlier come, — the position which the Church holds now, — 
and the hope is therefore entertained that they will find 
their way back again into the old fold. Possibly it may 
not be quite soon, perhaps not while the leaders who 
broke lances with each other in the controversy remain. 
But with the culture of kindly feeling, and a generous 
forbearance born of the true spirit of our Lord, who 
prayed that his disciples might all be one, it may be 
hoped that so desirable an end may in time be attained. 

The reader who has followed this history from its begin- 
ning will perhaps pause here a moment for a brief survey 
of the present and a glance toward the future. He has seen 
the Church, modest and yet aggressive in its origin and 
earlier years, rising gradually to its present position of activ- 
ity and strength. The fathers builded with the courage 
born of true faith. Many of them were missionaries, pos- 
sessing the truest pioneer instincts. Step by step, with the 
early westward emigration, they carried the gospel to the 
scattered homes of the settlers, avoiding, however, the cities, 
in accordance with the instincts of their birth and training. 



634 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

and thus failing to seize the best opportunities for enlarge- 
ment. But from their toils and prayers and faith has come 
the goodly heritage which has fallen to us of the present. 
The latter half of the present century has been chiefly the 
period of development. Within this time the various organ- 
ized agencies of the Church have had their origin and growth. 
The Publishing House extends its history farther into the 
past, but at the middle of the century it had not yet passed 
beyond a stage of infancy. Just a half century ago the first 
college of the Church was founded. The closing years of the 
century mark great advances. The church membership in 
1850 was scarcely forty thousand. It has now reached two 
hundred and forty thousand, with over two thousand min- 
isters. The missionary work, then not yet in organized form, 
is now conducted by two organizations wielding great power. 
The Sunday-school work, having then but feeble recognition, 
now presents an army of over two hundred and fifty-five 
thousand pupils, cared for by another army of over thirty-five 
thousand teachers. The Publishing House has grown into 
large proportions. The young people's organization enrolls 
seventy-three thousand members, nearly one-third of the 
entire membership of the Church. Education, general and 
theological, is widely provided for. The ministry and people 
are advancing to a higher apprehension of Christian life and 
activity. Church legislation has broadened into a larger 
freedom. Everywhere are seen the tokens of advancing life 
and the promise of greater enlargement. It will only be 
necessary, with these changed and improved conditions, that 
the Church maintain earnestly the spirit of devout piety 
and the deep religious earnestness and consecration on 
which the fathers so strongly insisted. If the Church shall 
thus abide in the strength which comes from close relation- 
ship with the Master, the gracious things of the present will 
be a prophecy of far greater things to come. 



PART IV 
HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL TABLES 



PART IV 
HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL TABLES^ 



I. GENERAL OFFICERS. 

BISHOPS. 

1800-1813, William Otterbein (died, 1813) and Martin Boehm (died, 1812). 

1813-1814, Christian Newcomer. 

1814-1815, Christian Newcomer. 

1815-1817, Christian Newcom.er and Andrew Zeller. 

1817-1821, Christian Newcomer and Andrew Zeller. 

1821-1825, Christian Newcomer and Joseph Hofiman. 

1825-1829, Christian Newcomer and Henry Kumler, Sen. 

1829-1833, Christian Newcomer (died, 1830) and Henry Kumler, Sen. 

1833-1837, Henry Kumler, Sen., Samuel Hiestand, and William Brown. 

1837-1841, Henry Kumler, Sen., Samuel Hiestand (died, 1838), and Jacob Erb. 

1841-1845, Henry Kumler, Sen., Jacob Erb, Plenry Kumler, Jun., and John 
Coons. 

1845-1849, John Russel, J. J. Glossbrenner, and William Hanby. 

1849-1853, J. J. Glossbrenner, Jacob Erb, and David Edwards. 

1853-1857, J. J. Glossbrenner, David Edwards, and Lewis Davis. 

1857-1861, J. J. Glossbrenner, David Edwards, Lewis Davis, D.D., and John 
Russel. 

1861-1865, J. J. Glossbrenner, David Edwards, Jacob Markwood, Daniel Shuck, 
and Henry Kumler, Jun. 

1865-1869, J. J. Glossbrenner, David Edwards, Jacob Markwood, Jonathan 
Weaver, and Daniel Shuck. 

1869-1873, J. J. Glossbrenner, David Edwards, D.D., Jonathan Weaver, and 
John Dickson. 

1873-1877, J. J. Glossbrenner, David Edwards, D.D. (died, 1876), Jonathan 
Weaver, D.D., and John Dickson. 

1877-1881, J. J. Glossbrenner, Jonathan Weaver, D.D., John Dickson, D.D., 
Milton Wright, D.D., and Nicholas Castle. 

1881-1885, J. J. Glossbrenner, D.D., Jonathan Weaver, D.D., John Dickson, 
D.D., E. B. Kephart, D.D., and Nicholas Castle. 

1885-1889, J. J. Glossbrenner, D.D., Emeritus ( died, 1887), Jonathan Weaver, D.D., 
E. B. Kephart, D.D., N. Castle, J. Dickson, D.D., M. Wright, D.D., D. K. Flick- 
inger, D.D. 

1889-1893, Jonathan Weaver, D.D., E. B. Kephart, D.D., LL.D., N. Castle, D.D., 
J. Dickson, D.D., J. W. Hott, D.D. 

1893-1897, Jonathan Weaver, D.D., Emeritus, E. B. Kephart, D.D., LL.D., 
N. Castle, D.D., J. W. Hott, D.D., LL.D., J. S. Mills, D.D., Ph.D. 

iThe following tables are compiled chiefly from the "Handbook of the 
United Brethren in Christ," by E. L. Shuey, A.M., and from the United Brethren 
Year-Books. 

637 



638 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

AGENTS OF THE PUBLISHING HOUSE. 
Three Trustees— John Russel, Jonathan Dresbach, George Dresbach— 

and Editor W.R. Rhinehart 183i-1837 

Rev. Wm. Hanby, Treasurer and Agent 1837-1839 

Rev. Wm. Hanby, Agent and Editor 1839-1845 

Rev. J. Markwood ( elected, but did not serve ) 1845 

Rev. N. Altman 1845-1852 

Rev. Wm. Hanby 1852-1853 

Rev. S. Vonnieda 1853-1854 

Rev. S. Vonnieda and Rev. H. Kumler, Jun 1854 

Rev. S. Vonnieda and T. N. Sowers 185-5-1861 

T. N. Sowers and J. B. King 1861-1864 

T. N. Sowers and Rev. W. J. Shuey 1864-1865 

Rev. W. J. Shuey and T. N. Sowers 1865 

Rev. W. J. Shuey and Rev. Wm. McKee 1865-1866 

Rev. W. J. Shuey 1866 

EDITORS OF THE "RELIGIOUS TELESCOPE." 

Rev. Wm. Rhinehart 1834-1839 

Rev. Wm. Hanby 1839-1845 

Rev. D. Edwards 1845-1849 

Rev. Wm. Hanby 1849-1852 

A.ssistant : Rev. John Lawrence 1850-1852 

Rev. John Lawrence 1852-1864 

Rev. D. Berger 1864-1869 

Rev. M. Wright 1869-1873 

Assistant: Rev. D. Berger 1869-1873 

Rev. M. Wright and Rev. W. O. Tobey, A.:M 1873-1877 

Rev. J. W. Hott, D.D 1877-1889 

Assistants: Rev. W. O. Tobey, A.M 1877-1881 

Rev. M. R. Drury, A.M 1881-1889 

Rev. I. L. Kephart, D.D 1889 

Associate: Rev. M. R. Drury, D.D 1889 

EDITORS OF SABBATH-SCHOOL PERIODICALS. 

Bishop D.Edwards 1854-1857 

Rev. Alex. Owen 1857-1859 

Rev. S. Vonnieda 1&59-1869 

Rev. D. Berger, D.D ...1869-1893 

Associate: Rev. J. W. Etter, D.D 1889-1893 

Rev. J. W. Etter, D.D 1893-1895 

Rev. D. Berger, D.D 1895 

Associate: Rev. H. A. Thompson, D.D., LL.D 1893 

EDITORS OF "UNITY MAGAZINE." 

Bishop D. Edwards 1853-1857 

Rev. Alex. Owen 1857-1859 

EDITORS OF "QUARTERLY REVIEW." 

Rev. J. W. Etter, D.D 1889-1893 

Associates : Rev. G. A. Funkhouser, D.D 1891-1892 

Rev. J. P. Landis, D.D., Ph.D 1891-1892 

Rev. A. W. Drury, D.D 1891-1892 

Professors of Union Biblical Seminary 1893 

Rev. G. M. Mathews, D.D 1894 



HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL TABLES 639 

EDITOR OP "WATCHWORD." 
Rev. H. F. Shupe , 1893 

EDITORS OF GERMAN PAPERS. 

Rev. John Russel ( unofficial ) 1840-1841 

Rev. Jacob Erb 1841-1842 

Rev. N. Altman 1846-1847 

Rev. D. Strickler 1847-1851 

Rev. Henry Staub 1851-1855 

Rev. Julius Degmeier 1855-1858 

Rev. S. Vonnieda 1858-1866 

Rev. Ezekiel Light 1866-1869 

Rev. William Mittendorf 1869-1885 

Rev. Ezekiel Light 1885-1889 

Rev. William Mittendorf 1889-1893 

Rev. Ezekiel Light, D.D. i 1893 

Rev. William Mittendorf « 1893-1895 

Rev. Edward Lorenz 1895 

EDITORS OF "WOMAN'S EVANGEL." 

Mrs. L. R. Keister, M.A 1882-1893 

Associate: Mrs. L. K. Miller, M.A 1888-1893 

Mrs.L. K. Miller, M.A 1893 

EDITORS OF "SEARCH LIGHT." 

Rev. W. M. Bell, D.D 1895 

Associate: Rev. Wm. McKee, D.D 1895 

SECRETARIES OF THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 

Rev. J. C. Bright 1853-1857 

Rev. D. K. Flickinger, D.D 1857-1885 

(Rev. J. C. Bright acted as secretary for a number of months 
during 1857 and 1858, but was compelled by declining health to 
leave the work.) 

Rev. Z. Warner, D.D 1885-1887 

Rev. Wm. McKee, Acting Secretary 1887-1888 

Rev. B. F. Booth, D.D. ^ 1888-1893 

Rev. W. M. Bell, D.D 1893 

TREASURERS OF THE BOARD OF MISSIONS. 

Rev. John Kemp 1853-1869 

Rev. Wm. McKee 1869-1873 

Rev. J. W. Hott 1873-1877 

Rev. J. K. Billheimer 1877-1885 

Rev. Wm. McKee, D.D 1885 

SECRETARIES OF CHURCH-ERECTION SOCIETY. 

Secretaries of Board of Missions 1872-1889 

Rev. John Hill ^ 1889-1890 

Rev. Wm. McKee, Acting Secretary 1890-1893 

Rev. C. I. B. Brane, A.M.i 1893-1894 

Rev. W. M. Weekley 1895 

TREASURERS OF CHURCH-ERECTION SOCIETY. 

Treasurers of Board of Missions 1872 

1 Resigned. ^Dig^, 



640 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

SECRETARIES OF WOMAN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 

Mrs. L. R. Keister, M.A 1881-1893 

Mrs. B. F. Witt 1893 

TREASURERS OF WOMAN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 

Mrs. W. J. Shuey 1875-1881 

Mrs. D. L. Rike 1881..... 

SECRETARIES OF THE SABBATH-SCHOOL ASSOCIATION. 

llev. I. Grouse 1865-] 877 

Col. Robert Cowden, Lit.D 1877 

TREASURERS OF THE SABBATH-SCHOOL ASSOCIATION. 

J. B. King 1865-1866 

Rev. S. Vonnieda 1866-1880 

Rev. W. J. Shuey 1880 

GENERAL MANAGER OF UNION BIBLICAL SEMINARY. 
Rev. D. R. Miller, D.D 1885 

SECRETARIES OF BOARD OF EDUCATION. 

Rev. H. A. Thompson, D.D 1873-1881 

Prof. J. P. Landis, D.D 1882-1885 

Rev. L. Bookwalter, D.D 1886-1894 

Prof. S. D. Faust, D.D 1894 

TREASURERS OF BOARD OF EDUCATION. 

Rev. L. Davis, D.D 1873-1877 

Prof. G. A. Funkhouser, D.D 1877 

SECRETARIES OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S CHRISTIAN UNION. 

Rev. W. A. Dickson 1890-1893 

Rev. H. F. Shupe 1893 

TREASURERS OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S CHRISTIAN UNION. 

Chester B. Boda 1890-1892 

Z. W. Barnard 1892 

SECRETARY OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
Prof. A. W. Drury, D.D 1885 

LIBRARIANS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

W. A. Shuey, A.M 1885-1886 

E. L. Shuey, A.M 1886-1895 

W. A. Shuey, A.M 1895 

n. GENERAL CHURCH BOARDS. 

Board of Trustees of the Church. 

Board of Missions. 

Church-Erection Board. 

Woman's Missionary Board. 

Sunday-School Board. 

Trustees of the Publishing House. 

Directors of Union Biblical Seminary. 



HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL TABLES 641 

Board of Education. 

Executive Council of Young People's Christian Union. 
Board of Managers of Historical Society. 

The headquarters of all the general societies of the Church are at Dayton, 
Ohio. 

III. EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 

Otterbein University— Westeryille, Ohio. Founded, 1847. 

Western College— Toledo, Iowa. Founded, 1856. 

Westfield College— Westfield, Illinois. Founded, 1865. 

Lane University— hecorapton, Kansas. Founded, 1865. 

Philomath College— PhilovaaXh., Oregon. Founded, 1865. 

Lebanon Valley College— AanY\\\Q, Pennsylvania. Founded, 1866. 

Avalon College— AvaXon, Missouri. Founded as Academy, 1869 ; as College, 1881. 

San Joaquin Valley College — Woodbridge, California. Founded, 1878. 

Union CoZZeg'e— Buckhannon, "W. Va. Founded as Academy, 1883 ; asCoUege, 1896. 

York College— Yovk, Nebraska. Founded, 1890. 

Union Biblical Seminary— Theological— Dayton, Ohio. Founded, 1871. 

Shenandoah Institute— Dayton, Virginia. P"'ounded, 1876. 

Edwards Academy — "White Pine, Tennessee. Founded, 1877. 

Erie Conference Seminary— ^ugar Grove, Warren County, Pa. Founded, 1884. 

Rufus Clark and Wife Training School— ^Inaingay , West Africa. Founded, 1887. 

Number of students in the above institutions, 1896, 2,000. 

Number of graduates, including 1896, 1,611. 

IV. THE CHURCH. 

HISTORICAL OUTLINE. 

Philip "WiLiiiAM Otterbein was born in Germany, 1726 ; came to America 
as a Missionary, 1752 ; Pastor in Baltimore, 1774 until his death, 1813 ; Bishop in 
the United Brethren Church, 1800-1813. 

Religious Movement under Otterbein and Boehm, 1766-1800. 

First Conference, Baltimore, Maryland, 1789. 

Church Formally Organized in Frederick County, Maryland, 1800. 

First General Conference, Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania, 1815. 

Confession of Faith. Revised and Formally Adopted, 1815. 

First Sunday School Organized, in Corydon, Indiana, 1820. 

Publishing House Established, at Circleville, Ohio, 1834. 

Constitution Adopted, First, 1837 ; Second, 1841. 

First College Founded, Otterbein University, 1847. 

Home, Frontier, and Foreign Missionary Society Organized, 1853. 

Missionary Work in Africa Begun, 1855. 

Sunday-School Association Organized, 1865. 

Board of Education Organized, 1869. 

Church-Erection Society Organized, 1869. 

Missionary Work in Germany Begun, 1870. 

Union Biblical Seminary Founded, 1871. 

Woman's Missionary Association Organized, 1875. 

Missionary Work Among the Chinese on Pacific Coast Begun, 1882. 

Missionary Work in China Begun, 1889. 

Amended Constitution and Revised Confession of Faith Adopted, 1889. 

Young People's Christian Union Organized, June 5, 1890. 

Mission in Japan Opened, 1895. 

Territory Occupied, United States, Canada, and Missions in Germany, Africa, 
China, and Japan. 
41 



642 THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

GROWTH IN MEMBERSHIP. 

I8I31 10,000 18501 40,000 1880 157,835 

18201 9,000 18531 47,000 1890 m,123 

18351 20,000 1861 94,453 1895 233,204 

18451 30,000 1870 118,055 1896 238,782 

GENERAL CONFERENCES. 

1815— Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania. 

1817— Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania. 

1821— Mr. Dewalt Mechlin's, Fairfield County, Ohio. 

1825— Jacob Shaup's, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. 

1829— Mr. Dewalt Mechlin's, Fairfield County, Ohio. 

1833— George Dresbach's, Pickaway County, Ohio. 

1837— Germantown, Ohio. 

1841— Dresbach's Church, Pickaway County, Ohio. 

1845— Circleville, Pickaway County, Ohio. 

1849— Germantown, Ohio. 

1853— Miltonville, Ohio. 

1857— Cincinnati, Ohio. 

1861— Westerville, Ohio. 

1865— Western, Iowa. 

1869— Lebanon, Pennsylvania. 

1873— Dayton, Ohio. 

1877— Westfield, Illinois. 

1881— Lisbon, Iowa. 

1885— Fostoria, Ohio. 

1889— York, Pennsylvania. 

1893— Dayton, Ohio. 

1897— Toledo, Iowa. 

ORGANIZATION OF ANNUAL CONFERENCES. 

First conference of ministers of the East was held in 1789. 
A second conference of ministers was held in 1791. 

Following these, necessary business was transacted at "big meetings," or on 
the authority of two or more preachers,- 1792-1799. 

The original conference in the East was constituted in 1800. 

TIME OF ORGANIZATION. 

The First Six Conferences we^-e: 

Original Conference 1800 

Miami 1810 

Muskingum 1818 

Scioto 1825 

Indiana 1830 

Pennsylvania and Virginia conferences made separate 1831 

Allegheny 1839 

Arkansas Valley 1881 

Auglaize ( first called Maumee ) 1853 

California 1864 

Central Illinois 1865 

Central Ohio 1878 

1 Estimated. 



HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL TABLES 643 

Chickamauga 1896 

Colorado 1872 

Columbia River ( first called Cascade, then Walla Walla ) 1865 

Dakota ( now not a separate conference ) 1871 

Des Moines 1861 

East German 1870 

East Nebraska 1873 

East Ohio (by union of Muskingum and Western Reserve ) 1886 

East Pennsylvania 1847 

Elkhorn (now not a separate conference) 1882 

Elkhorn and Dakota united 1885 

Erie 1853 

Fox River ( now not a separate conference ) 1861 

Germany 1879 

Hagerstown (the original conference, no longer distinctly preserved) 1800 

Illinois 1845 

Indiana 1830 

Iowa 1845 

Kansas 1857 

Kentucky 1850 

Lower Wabash ( by division of Wabash ) 1858 

Maryland 1887 

Miami 1810 

Michigan ( first called North Michigan) 1862 

Minnesota 1857 

Missouri 1858 

Muskingum ( part of East Ohio ) 1818 

Neosho 1870 

North Michigan (first called Saginaw) 1877 

North Ohio ( first called Michigan ) : 1853 

Northwest Kansas (first called West Kansas) 1879 

Ohio German 1853 

Ontario ( first called Canada) 1856 

Oregon 1855 

Parjiersburg 1858 

Pennsylvania ( by division of Hagerstown Conference ) 1831 

Rock River 1853 

St. Joseph 1846 

Sandusky 1834 

Scioto 1825 

Sherbro 1884 

Southern Missouri ( first called Southwest Missouri ) 1881 

Southwest Kansas 1893 

Tennessee 1866 

Tennessee River 1896 

Upper Wabash ( by division of Wabash ) 1858 

Virginia (by division of Hagerstown Conference) 1831 

Wabash (no longer distinctly preserved) 1835 

West Nebraska 1878 

Western Reserve ( part of East Ohio ) 1853 

White River 1846 

Wisconsin 1858 



644 



THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

STATISTICS FOR 1896, 



Conferences. 


i 

i 

1 




S 


3 


i 

^ c 




11 




i 




IS 


CO 

% 

2 


1. Allegheny 

2. Arkansas Valley. 
3 Auglaize 


209 

105 

124 

21 

57 

66 

21 

41 

140 

97 

69 

132 

79 

41 

122 

66 

163 

133 

94 

25 

199 

34 

94 

25 

36 

92 

80 

111 

36 

78 

43 

38 

30 

259 

138 

37 

141 

138 

152 

36 

27 

50 

117 

169 

79 

111 

55 

23 

12 

3 

1 


75 
39 
45 
19 
25 
33 
10 
17 
59 
49 
39 
68 
62 
16 
68 
3-3 
44 
62 
32 
16 
66 
12 
53 
16 
21 
28 
34 
33 
23 
35 
29 
12 
12 
40 
66 
16 
48 
38 
78 
13 
14 
23 
41 
34 
28 
33 
31 
10 
16 

2 


11 

14 
13 

9 

11 
16 

6 

6 
20 
15 

9 
26 

3 

14 

"30 
21 
18 

4 
25 
10 
17 

3 

""9 

14 
3 
4 

8 

■■■9 
8 
47 
8 
4 

"ii 
22 
12 

■"23 

28 
17 

8 
21 

4 


12,383 
3,-397 
6,-531 
789 
3,498 
4,974 
798 
1,118 
5,-372 
6,552 
4,012 
9,262 
8,313 
1,000 
3,861 
3;327 

10,082 

6,800 

4,151 

605 

11,-360 
3,022 

11,167 
958 
1,343 
3,212 
3,470 
3,824 
967 
4,012 
2,312 
1,426 
1,114 

11,400 

11,653 
1,471 
9,966 
8,827 

10,939 

1,450 

977 

1,857 

7,437 

9,652 

2,2-35 

7,183 

2,070 

879 

5,062 

100 

12 


88 
40 
27 
10 
26 
31 
6 

52 
56 
43 
72 
48 
9 

40 
33 
48 
51 
53 


3,381 

1,170 

1,285 

338 

881 

1,131 

250 

290 

1,629 

3,107 

1,659 

2,891 

2,966 

271 

1,481 

1,360 

1,444 

2,130 

1,613 


180 

106 
25 
56 
63 
21 
18 

123 
84 
61 

123 

.32 

115 

51 

135 

104 

86 

9 

168 

32 

93 

24 

27 

55 

80 

96 

28 

65 

35 

32 

22 

203 

127 

33 

1-34 

145 

146 

17 

20 

29 

108 

145 

63 

91 

5-5 

16 

11 


14,631 
3,766 
9,176 
1,108 
3,770 
5,003 
1,200 
860 
6,137 
9,682 
3,788 

10,020 

11,188 
1,077 
5,851 
2,870 
: 7,127 
5,999 
4,601 
270 

10,672 
3,111 

11,-555 
l,-5-55 
1,629 
3,0-5.5 
3,680 
5,-300 
1,108 

2,'930 
1,956 
1,243 

12,080 

15,-503 
2,1-50 

11,854 
8,870 

11,925 

1,132 

955 

1,917 

6,933 

8,180 

2,920 

6,-572 

2,477 

655 

626 


1,908 

627 

1,158 

160 

554 

718 

136 

91 

909 

1,289 

539 

1,356 

1,527 

201 

851 

473 

1,034 

887 

769 

50 

1,684 

510 

1,-505 

225 

249 

358 

559 

718 

226 

771 

392 

239 

73 

1,603 

2,066 

344 

1,789 

1,152 

1,756 

131 

167 

188 

1,047 

1,072 

480 

966 

362 

52 

50 


S37,016 14 

8,281 72 

16,778 81 


4. California 

5. Central Illinois . . 

6. Central Ohio 

7 Colorado .... 


4,687 37 
12,241 67 
12,769 54 

4.046 60 


8. Columbia River. 

9. Des Moines 

10. East German .... 

11. East Nebraska. .. 

12. East Ohio 

13. East Pennsylv'ia 

14. Elk. and Dak 

15. Erie 


2,8&5 48 
23,224 93 
20,947 06 
1-3,539 84 
24,452 93 
23,694 75 

2,865 75 
16,813 83 


16 Illinois 


10,968 63 




11,-398 99 


18 Iowa 


6,718 93 




11,.58.3 51 


20. Kentucky 

21. Lower "SVabash.. 

22. Maryland 

23. Miami 


270 53 


43 
18 
68 

8 
18 
17 
42 
45 
13 
30 
19 
16 

8 
49 
68 
17 
60 
40 
83 

5 
10 
11 
32 
25 
24 
31 
19 
10 

2 


1,8:3.5 

810 

3,135 

256 

629 

651 

1,243 

1,567 

361 

1,339 

609 

490 

2-53 

1,603 

3,022 

590 

2,914 

1,378 

2,780 

162 

250 

358 

1,602 

1,-501 

701 

1,708 

776 

160 

79 


14,-5-50 98 

5,584 27 

29,581 73 


24. Michigan 

25. Minnesota 

26. Missouri 


3,591 64 
5,690 79 
6,710 97 


27. Xeosho 


7,579 93 


28. N.W.Kansas.... 

29. North Michigan. 

30. North Ohio 

31. Ohio German 

32. Ontario 


8,9a3 81 
3,108 47 
10,747 90 
9,742 27 
3,737 42 


33. Oregon 


3,182 6.5 


34. Parkersburg 

35. Pennsylvania... 

36. Rock River 

37. Sandusky 

38. Scioto 


13,367 67 
31,192 15 
7,748 28 
31,667 39 
12,945 79 


39. St. Joseph 

40. S.Missouri 

41. S. W. Kansas .... 

42. Tennessee 

43. Upper Wabash.. 

44. Virginia . . 


29,532 00 
3,012 20 
2,117 48 
2,-327 80 
16,316 72 
13,020 12 


45. Wes b Nebraska . . 

46. White River 

47. Wisconsin 

48. Germany 


4,670 29 

13,683 55 

7,8.30 10 

392 11 


49. Africa 


133 28 


50. Japan 




51. China 



























Totals, 1896.... 
Totals, 1895.... 


4,2.50 
4,242 


1,718 
1,669 


474 
435 


238,782 
233,204 


1,571 
1,419 


62,639 
56,405 


3,646 
3,573 


255,498 
246,268 


35,363 
a5,160 


§567,886 77 
569,514 29 


Increase 


8 


49 


39 


5.-578 


1-52 


6.2.34 


73 


9.2-30 


203 












?1.627 52 


1 i ' ' ' 







HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL TABLES 

UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST. 



645 





i 


1 


o 




S o 


^ 


■si 


1 






1 

r 


1 




III 


O 




II 


o 

1 

6 


o S 

p 




O 


H 


o 


3 


H 


^ 


>u 


^ 


> 


1 


$38,269 18 


$4,322 30 


$194 27 


$2,064 55 


$88,051 22 


180 


$407,452 


32 


$50,730 


2 


4,011 84 


300 16 


21 63 


48 12 


13,362 68 


32 


41,400 


10 


5,000 


3 


12,340 75 


1,677 29 


110 65 


155 63 


33,631 04 


115 


143,900 


12 


8,325 


4 


2,312 48 


327 50 


19 00 


317 75 


8,266 26 


13 


25,450 


11 


9,560 


5 


5,606 80 


1,126 41 


74 22 


651 46 


21,306 82 


54 


76,720 


19 


13,590 


6 


9,325 25 


2,092 32 


217 20 


1,167 27 


27,611 68 


64 


104,985 


6 


11,000 


7 


1,950 54 


266 54 


7 25 


16 40 


6,936 21 


9 


30,650 


7 


5,600 


8 


919 27 


100 95 


21 85 


350 


4,163 62 


10 


15,700 


6 


3,426 


9 


14,697 67 


1,237 07 


114 36 


2,098 21 


43,466 28 


87 


122,520 


28 


18,000 


10 


20,636 59 


2,865 42 


198 50 


623 88 


51,100 12 


85 


258,275 


16 


32,100 


11 


3,766 21 


670 18 


40 23 


1,933 60 


21,259 96 


52 


65,240 


16 


8,150 


12 


21,508 48 


2,446 02 


181 90 


545 50 


63,373 62 


126 


303,225 


11 


9,600 


13 


16,974 48 


3,956 40 


409 40 


1,124 32 


52,101 71 


74 


167,766 


20 


37,725 


14 


544 89 


134 50 


5 00 


562 41 


4,362 88 


16 


12,270 


4 


1,500 


15 


905 72 


1,210 20 


104 03 


927 29 


22,175 61 


83 


123,816 


29 


20,275 


16 


2,817 40 


769 17 


82 91 


658 25 


16,600 87 


59 


80,650 


18 


11,825 


17 


7,601 85 


1,151 86 


47 85 


173 75 


21,757 43 


125 


98,692 


16 


6,755 


18 


15,191 61 


1,765 68 


89 75 


2,494 99 


28,747 28 


100 


185,626 


33 


29,000 


19 


7,324 67 


613 27 


50 77 


327 13 


21,353 15 


52 


66,940 


19 


12,670 


20 


73 39 
11,731 41 


6 20 
1,736 34 






358 42 
33,214 96 


11 

150 


3,000 
141,419 






21 


78"2i 


"2,568'46 


"i5 


"■10,456 


22 


2,934 96 


1,101 78 


159 50 


284 88 


11,346 00 


35 


78,975 


7 


11,250 


23 


26,854 16 


5,357 22 


2,118 48 


3,682 76 


75,024 26 


90 


341,485 


20 


28,400 


24 


3,766 76 


396 67 


44 60 


2100 


8,690 97 


11 


20,950 


3 


2,400 


25 


2,994 23 


327 95 


126 00 


77 06 


9,893 64 


21 


24,000 


10 


6,500 


26 


3,813 57 


655 10 


18 33 


14 50 


12,096 97 


40 


36,636 


8 


4,515 


27 


6,034 18 


449 81 


75 20 


27 70 


15,150 39 


36 


38,225 


14 


4,935 


28 


2,909 34 


511 55 


81 12 


28 60 


13,821 00 


33 


51,900 


12 


5,200 


29 


1,033 53 


77 97 


11 45 


11 00 


3,639 42 


16 


17,430 


6 


2,350 


30 


4,907 28 


1,065 69 


39 50 


3,015 50 


21,734 23 


84 


114,579 


15 


11,600 


31 


5,588 04 


2,050 87 


39 00 


95 25 


19,166 35 


38 


108,150 


2] 


22,500 


32 


2,406 37 
1,323 50 


507 43 
235 96 


1100 
14 49 


19 80 

20 90 


7,205 74 
5,230 39 


29 
21 


36,825 
48,100 






33 


"6 


2,450 


34 


13,938 72 


829 89 


72 00 


361 50 


30,248 14 


171 


208,430 


23 


10,400 


35 


25,848 67 


5,993 24 


385 75 


1,224 30 


72,115 23 


135 


357,964 


30 


55,484 


36 




1,246 79 


84 90 


220 16 


10,203 88 


32 


46,950 


12 


8,150 


37 


""37,85i'67 


3,950 02 


218 22 


1,420 13 


82,234 58 


132 


801,270 


26 


26.965 


38 


11,576 37 


783 54 


95 96 


113 34 


27,301 29 


139 


119,275 


4 


3,750 


39 


17,108 00 


3,169 00 


181 00 


723 00 


54,504 00 


138 


237,785 


27 


27,235 


40 


360 80 


139 79 


5 46 


17 25 


3,791 71 


16 


18,120 


3 


1,800 


41 


255 43 


152 60 


18 00 


21 41 


2,912 82 


9 


8,800 


1 


500 


42 


112 70 


181 33 


9 17 


31 00 


3,040 65 


22 


19,600 


1 


1,200 


43 


9,699 22 


1,323 70 


229 60 


624 86 


30,407 53 


100 


131,200 


17 


11,266 


44 


9,415 27 


1,266 93 


164 21 


132 34 


25,662 62 


119 


111,471 


14 


11,706 


45 


1,539 80 


107 28 


1150 


54 15 


6,882 42 


19 


20,500 


8 


2,925 


46 


12,991 62 


1,638 54 


105 50 


377 10 


30,661 34 


107 


137,860 


8 


4,900 


47 


6,170 45 


373 87 


70 25 


131 00 


14,406 03 


42 


43,740 


8 


4,900 


48 


1,134 49 


488 98 


211 45 




2,359 93 


7 


30,875 


6 


5,000 


49 
50 


436 93 


340 85 


15 34 


"■'262'66 


1,158 08 


12 


10,370 


7 


638 


51 




.'!!.***.!!.*! 




v.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. 


'"!!!!!!!!! 


'*"*[ 






























$410,413 94 


$63,498 14 


$6,685 80 


$31,325 90 


$1,173,490 43 


3,147 


$6,197,159 


660 


$583,089 




384,339 02 


69,915 94 


6,350 67 


48,490 94 


1,186,922 96 


3,104 


5,197,420 


612 


512,040 




$26,074 92 




$335 13 






43 




48 


$71,049 




■$6,4i7'86 




$17,i65'64 


""$13,432 '53 




$26i 

















646 



THE UNITED BBETHREN IN CHRIST 












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HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL TABLES 



647 






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HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL TABLES 



649 



STATISTICS OF UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH AS GIVEN BY 

CENSUS OF 1890, BY STATES. 



States. 


2^ 








^1 

(DO 




S S 




24 

18 

2 

320 

569 

213 

322 

13 

57 

138 

35 

105 

147 

35 

745 

13 

526 

27 

27 

71 

18 

259 

47 


15 
8 


3,825 
1,800 


8 
10 

2 

58 

62 

63 

181 

1 


915 

1,500 

200 

10,345 

10,425 

8,355 

20,280 

75 


$28,400 
32,800 


588 


Colorado.. 


585 


Idaho 


100 


Illinois 


245 
476 
148 
128i 
11 
55 
93 
23 

7o 
23 

692 
8 

467 
7 
18 
66 
13 

175 
45 


67,495 

154,762 

29,810 

33,200 

2,400 
14,300 
27,405 

4,975 
14,150 
16,775 

5,975 
205,755 

2,100 
147,036 

1,175 

5,600 
11,500 

3,400 
54,170 

8,850 


260,075 

551,636 

211,323 

183,770 

4,700 

113,789 

133,250 

23,375 

47,825 

84,950 

34,650 

1,198,870 

11,100 

1,080,135 

4,150 

13,985 

65,940 

22,000 

140,645 

39,275 


15,429 




35,824 




10,401 
13,768 


Kansas 




567 


Maryland 


4,736 
5,201 




44 

12 

53 

65 

12 

34 

5 

54 

18 

9 

3 

5 

79 

2 


5,515 
1,450 
5,325 
5,085 
1,015 
5,295 

675 
5,110 
1,225 
1,305 

375 

700 
7,765 

100 


Minnesota 


803 


Missouri 


4,361 

5,673 

953 


Nebraska 


New York 


Ohio 


47,678 
493 


Oregon 


Pen nsyl vania 


33,951 
493 


South Dakota 


Tennessee 


1,141 

5,306 

494 


Virginia. 




West Virginia . 


12,242 

1,687 


Wisconsin 




Total 


3,731 


2,837 


816,458 


780 


93,085 


84,292,643 


202,474 





SUMMARY OF CHURCH PROPERTY. 



Value of Churches ^ 

Value of Parsonages ^ 

Publishing House, Assets ^ 

Missionary Society 2 — 

Permanent Fund $92,048 36 

Mission Property 55,000 00 

$147,048 36 
Deduct property reported as churches 46,783 00 

Church-Erection Society, Permanent Fund^ 

Woman's Missionary Association, Property * $33,400 00 

Deduct property reported as churches 9,000 00 

Educational Institutions i — 

Buildings and Grounds $435,320 00 

Endowment 313,643 00 

Contingent Assets 191,865 00 

Libraries 16,250 00 

Cabinets and Apparatus 14,450 00 



»1897. 



$5,197,159 GO 
583,089 00 
378,260 90 



100,265 36 
48,000 00 

24,400 00 



971,528 00 
$7,302,702 26 



650 



THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 



SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 



Church Originated 1766-1800 

First Known Sunday School, near Corydon, Indiana 1820 

First Sunday School in Otterbein's Church, Baltimore, Maryland 1827 

First Sunday-School Song Book, Words Only 1842 

First Mention of "Sabbath-School" in Book of Discipline 1849 

First Children's Paper Published 1854 

First Organization of Sunday-School Board of Managers 1865 

First Notes on International Sunday-School Lessons, at Commence- 
ment of System, January 1873 

First Sunday-School Song Book with Music 1873 

First Sunday-School Library Published 1874 

First Sunday-School Normal Class, at Gallon, Ohio 1876 

First Sunday-School Normal Institute, Chautauqua Method, Arcanum, 

Ohio, October 1877 

First Children's Day, July 4 1880 

First Sunday-School Assembly, Lisbon, Iowa, August 1880 

Organization of Home Reading Circle 1881 

Organization of Bible Normal Union, October 19 1886 

Adoption of Plan of Annual Examination on International Sunday- 
School Lessons, April 1890 

General Movement Toward Introduction of Home Department in 

Sunday School, September 14 1891 



STATISTICAL. 



Number in Sunday Schools— 

1865 78,099 

1870 128,842 

1875 160,900 

1880 185,960 



1885 194,758 

1890 245,447 

1895 286,428 

1896 290,861 



Chautauqua Normal Union, 1874-1884 

Assembly Normal Union, January 1, 1884,-October 19, 1886 
Bible Normal Union, October 19, 1886,-April 24, 1893 



500 

524 

3,624 



ORDINATION OF BISHOPS.^ 



Otterbein 
ordained 

in the 

Reformed 

Church, 

1749. 



Newcomer, 

1813. 



Hoffman 



1813. 



'Zeller, 1815. 

Kumler, 
Sen., 1816. 



f Coons, Newcomer f Davis, Kumler, 
I assisting, 1826. . . 1 Jun., assisting, 1842. 
\ Hanby, 1833. 
[Edwards, 1889.{™*Sff^;858. 



r Weaver, 1848. 
Kephart, 1861. 
-j Hott, Markwood 
I assisting, 1864. 
[Mills, 1872. 



Brown, 1819. ■{ Glossbrenner, 



Russel, Hoffman assisting, 1822. 
Kumler, Jun., Hoffman assisting, 1822. 
Hiestand, Hoffman and Kumler, Sen., assisting, 1824. 
Erb, Kumler, Sen., / Markwood, lM\..-{ Castle, 1861. 
assisting, 1825 . ..\ Dickson, 1850. 

Assisted in ordaining — 
Russel, 1822. 
Kumler, Jun., 1822. 
Hiestand, 1824. 



Rev. Frederick Schaffer, 1813, never a bishop. 

Shuck, 1847. In the absence of a bishop, ordained 
by Rev. John Lopp, who was himself ordained by 
Bishop Kumler, Sen., in 1833. 



iSee article on "Ordination in the United Brethren Church," by Dr. A. W. 
Drury, in the United Brethren Quarterly Review, Vol. V., pp. 281, 282. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



I. The Church; of the United Brethren in Christ— Its Doctrine, 
History, Organization, anb Worship in General. 

Berger, D., in American Church History Semes, Vol. XII. New York, Christian 

Literature Co., 1894. — In Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowl- 
edge. Vol. IV. Third revised edition. New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co., 

1891. 
Carroll, H. K., The Religious Forces of the United States. New York, Christian 

Literature Co., 1893. 
Dniry, A. W., in People^s Cyclopedia of Universal Knowledge. Vol. III. Revised 

edition. New York, Hunt & Eaton, 1886. — (Editor), Disciplines of the United 

Brethren in Christ, 181U-18U1. 1895. 
Dmry, M. R., in Columbian Cyclopedia. Vol. XXX. New York (now Buffalo), 

Garretson, Cox & Co., 1893. 
Fisher, G. P., History of the Christian Church. New York, Charles Scribner's 

Sons, 1893. 
Hurst, J. F., Short History of the Christian Church. New York, Harper & 

Brothers, 1893. 
Eephart, E. B., A Manual of Church Discipline of the United Brethren in Christ. 

1895. 
Origin, Doctrine, Constitution, and Discipline of the United Brethren in Christ. In 

English and German. Revised quadrennially. Last edition, 1897. 
Shuey, E. L., Handbook of the United Brethren in Christ. Last edition, 1897. 
Shuey, W. J., in McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and 

Ecclesiastical Literature. Vol. X. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1869-87. 
Weaver, J., in Sanford's Concise Cyclopedia of Religious Knoivledge. New York, 

Charles L. Webster & Co., 1890. 

II. Manuscript Collections of Historical Material. 

The library of the Historical Society of the Church of the United Brethren 
in Christ, at Dayton, Ohio, contains the ordination license and a number of 
letters of Otterbein, and possesses manuscripts and records pertaining to the 
history of the Church. Among these are the records of numerous annual 
conferences and of some local congregations. 

The official records of the proceedings of the General Conferences from 
the beginning are in charge of the publishing agent, at Dayton. 

III. Printed Collections. 

1. Bibliography. 

Sbuey, W. A., Manual of the United Brethren Publishing House: Historical and 

Descriptive. 1892. Pp. 803-322. 
Catalogue of the United Brethren Publishing House. Issued annually. 

1 All the books here mentioned, unless otherwise stated, are published by 
the United Brethren Publishing House. 

651 



652 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

2. Statistics. 

Carroll, H. K., The Religious Forces of the United States. New York, Christian 

Literature Co., 1893. 
Stmey, W. J., Year-Book of the United Brethren in Christ. Published annually 

since 1867. 
A table of comparative statistics, from 1813 to 1887, was published in the 
Year-Book for 1888. A revised table, brought down to 1896, is printed on pp. 
646-648 of this volume. 

3. Minutes of General and Annual Conferences. 

Pi'oceedings of the General Coriferences of the United Brethren in Christ. Published 
quadrennially since 1865. Stenographically reported ( except 1865 ). Edited 
by W. J. Shuey. 
Most of the annual conferences issue the minutes of their annual sessions 
in pamphlet form. Files of these (not complete) are preserved in the library 
of the United Brethren Historical Society, at Dayton. Minutes are also pub- 
lished in the Religious Telescope, Dayton. 

A. Histories of Conferences. 

Luttrell, J. L., History of the Auglaize Annual Conference of the United Brethren 

Church, from 1853 to 1891. 1892. 
McKee, W., History of the Miami Annual Conference. In Religious Telescope, VoL 

LII. (1886), pp. 98, 114, 130, 162, 178, 290, 386, 498, 530, 546, 562 ; Vol. LIII. (1887), 

pp. 50, 146; Vol. LVI. (1890), p. 596. 
Mathers, W., Brief History of Sandusky Conference. Toledo, Ohio. 

5. Histories of Institutions. 

Bookwalter, L., A Brief History of Western College. To 1876. Western College, 
Western (now Toledo), Iowa, 1876. 

Cowden, R., A Century of Sabbath- School Work in the United Brethren Church. Art- 
icle in Quarterly Review of the United Brethren in Christ, Vol. IV., No. 2. 1893. 

FliCkinger, D. K., Our Missionary Work from 1853 to 1889. 1889. 

This work contains a history of the operations of the missionary 
societies of the Church, and includes biographies of officers and mis- 
sionaries. 

Garst, H., History of Otterbein University. In preparation. 

Landis, J. P., History of Union Biblical Seminary. In preparation. 

Marot, Mrs. B., Miller, Mrs. L. K., and Keister, Mrs. L. R., History of the 
Woman''s Missionary Association of the United Brethren in Christ. Last edition, 
with supplement by Mrs. B. Marot, Mrs. L. K. Miller, and Mrs. B. F. Witt. 
1894. 

Shuey, W. A., Manual of the United Brethren Publishing House: HistoHcal and 
Descriptive. 1834-1892. Illustrated. 1892. 

This manual includes biographical sketches of editors, publishing 
agents, and trustees, with numerous portraits, and a bibliography. 
For a brief historical outline of Otterbein University, see H. Garst in the 

United Brethren Year-Book for 1888, and M. R. Drury in Columbian Cyclopedia; 

of Union Biblical Seminary, see United Brethren Year-Book for 1888; of Western 

College, see W. M. Beardshear in United Brethren Year-Book for 1889; of Young 

People's Christian Union, see United Brethren Year-Book for 1891, and Religious 

Telescope, Vol. LVII. (1891), p. 282. 

6. Histories of Congregations. 
As the history of congregations is chiefly of local interest, no attempt is 
here made to present a list of such publications. 



BIBLIOGBAPHY 653 

7. Collections of Biographies. 
Thompson, H. A., Our Bishops. Portraits. Chicago, 1889. 

8. Legal Trials and Decisions. 

Circuit Court of the Second Circuit, Montgomery County, Ohio, Decision in the 
Publishing House Case. 1891. — June Term, 1891 (testimony of plaintiffs in 
Rike et al. v. Floyd et al.), printed depositions of Dr. Philip Schaff, Dr. 
James Strong, and Bishop J. M. Walden on the Revised Confession of 
Faith of the United Brethren in Christ, 

Drury, A. W., Ecclesiastical Constitution, Considered in Reference to the Recent 
Changes Adopted by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. 1890. 

Shuey, "W. J., An Outline History of Our Church Troubles. 1889. 

Supreme Court of Indiana, Decision in the Case of the United Brethren in Christ 
vs. the Seceders from Said Church. 1891. 

Supreme Court of Ohio, Affirmation of Decision of Circuit Court. 1895. 

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Decision in the Ca^e of the United Brethren in 
Christ vs. the Seceders from Said Church. 1893. 

Weaver, J., and Shuey, W. J., A Consideration of the Acts of the General Con- 
ference of 1885. 1888. 
The above are only a few of the numerous publications relating to the 

recent controversy in the denomination, and to the legal trials resulting from 

the division in the Church which occurred in 1889. Many others have been 

issued by the United Brethren Publishing House. 

9. Miscellaneous. 

The files of the Religious Telescope, from the founding in 1834 to the present, 
preserved at the Publishing House at Dayton, Ohio, are replete with valuable 
information bearing upon all phases of the life of the Church. The U7iity 
Magazine, 1853-59, and the Quarterly Review, founded in 1890, also contain articles 
relating to the history, doctrine, and polity, and to the educational, missionary, 
and other work of the Church. 

IV. Denominational Relations. 
Drury, A. W., in Life of Rev. Rhilip William Otterbein. 1884. 

V. Histories. 

1. Genei-al. 

Berger, D., History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Illustrated. 1897. 

Hanby, W., History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, from 1825 to 
1850. Circleville, Ohio, United Brethren Publishing House, 1851. 

Lawrence, J., History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. First edition, 
two vols., 1860-61. Last edition, two vols, in one, 1888. 

Mittendorf, W., Kirchengeschichte der Vereinigten Briider in Christo. (A transla- 
tion of Lawrence's History.) 1871. 

Spayth, H. G., History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Circleville, 
Ohio, United Brethren Publishing House, 1851. 

£. Local. 

Becker, H. J., History of the United Brethren Church in California. Sacramento, 

California. 
FlicMnger, D. K., and McKee, W., Ethiopia Coming to God; or, Missionary Life in 

Western Africa. Including a History of Sherbro and Other Missions of 

the United Brethren in Christ. Illustrated. 1885. 



654 BIBLIOORAPHY 

VI. Biographies. 

Davis, L., Life of Bishop David Edwards, D.D. 1883. 

Dmry, A. W., Life of Rev. Philip William Otterhein. 1884. — ii/e of Bishop J. J. 

Glossbrenner, D.D. 1889. 
Newcomer, Christian, Life and Journal. Hagerstown, Maryland, F. G. W. 

Kapp, 1834. 
Weaver, J., Philip William Otterbein. In Lives of the Leaders of the Church 

Universal, edited by F. Piper and H. M. MacCracken. 1879. 

A brief biography of Philip William Otterbein may be found in nearly 

every cyclopedia, general, biographical, and religious, published in 

America. 

VII. Doctrinal, Symbolical, Coktroversial, and Practical. 

Bootwalter, L., The Family ; or, The Home and the Training of Children. 1894. 

Drury, A. W., The Revised Confession of Faith of the United Brethren in Christ. 
1890. 

Edwards, D., Youth^s Scripture Compend. 1871. 

Etter, J. W., Tlie Preacher and His Sermon. A Treatise on Homiletics. 1883.— 
The Doctrine of Christian Baptism. 18SH. — The Thorn in the Flesh. 1892. 

Hoke, J., Holiness; or, The Higher Christian Life. Revised edition. 1872. 

Hott, J. W., on Future Punishment. In That Unknown Country. Springfield, 
Massachusetts, C. A. Nichols & Co., 1889. 

Lorenz, E. S., Getting Ready for a Revival. 1888. — (Editor), The Coming Revival. 
By Twelve Different Writers. 1887. 

Shuey, W. J., and Flickinger, D. K., Discourses on Doctrinal and Practical 
Subjects. 1859. 

Weaver, J. (Editor), CJiristian Doctrine. By Thirty-seven Different Writers. 
1889. — (Author), Practical Comment on the Confession of Faith of the United 
Brethren in Christ. 1892. — Discourses on the Resurrection. 1871. — Divine Provi- 
dence. 1873. — The Doctrine of Universal Restoration Carefully Examined. 1878. 

VIII. Hymnology. 

Lanthum, W. H., and Lorenz, E. S., Hymns for the Sanctuary and Social Worship. 
Prepared by order of the General Conference of 1873, under the supervision 
of a committee consisting of Rev. W. H. Lanthurn, Rev. W. J. Shuey, 
S. E. Kumler, Rev. I. Baltzell, and Rev. D. Berger. 1874. 

Lorenz, E. S., The Otterbein Hymnal. Prepared by order of the General Con- 
ference of 1889. Advisory committee, S. E. Kumler, C. H. Lyon, Mrs. A. B. 
Shauck, Judge J. A. Shauck, and Dr. J. P. Landis. 1890. 

Lorenz, E. S., and Baltzell, Isaiah, separately and together have been the 
editors and authors of an extended list of music-books, chiefly for the 
Sunday school. For complete record, see Catalogue of the United Breth- 
ren Publishing House. 

RMnehart, W. R., The American Church Harp. 1856. 

RMnehart, W. R., and Erb, Jacob, Hymn-Book of the United Brethren in Christ. 
1883. 

Shuey, W. J., Hanby, William, and Chittenden, L. S., A Collection of Hymns for 
the Use of the United Brethren in Christ. Prepared by order of the General 
Conference of 1857. 1858. 

Spayth, H. G., A Collection of Hynnns for the Use of the United Brethren in Christ. 
Prepared by order of the General Conference of 1845. 1&49. 
For other publications of this class see p. 406 of this volume, the Manual 

of the United Brethren Publishing House, pp. 314-317, and the Catalogue of the 

United Brethren Publishing House. 



APPENDICES 



APPENDICES 



APPENDIX I 

THE CONFESSION OF FAITH OF THE UNITED BRETHREN 
IN CHRIST— ITS VARIOUS CHANGES ^ 

Correctness attested by A. W. Brury, D.D., and J. P. Landis, D.D. 

CONFESSION IN USE PRIOR TO 1815. 

"ARTICLE 1. In the name of God we confess before all men, that 
we believe in the only true God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; 
that these three are one; the Father in the Son, the Son in the 
Father, and the Holy Ghost equal in essence with both ; that this 
God created heaven and earth and all that in them is, visible as 
well as invisible, and sustains, governs, protects, and supports the 
same. 

"Art. 2. We believe in Jesus Christ; that he is very God and 
man, Saviour and Redeemer of the whole world ; that all men through 
him may be saved if they will ; that this Jesus suffered for us ; that 
he died and was buried, rose on the third day, ascended into heaven, 
and that he will come again, at the last day, to judge the living and 
the dead. 

"Art. 3. We believe in the Holy Ghost ; that he proceeds from 
the Father and the Son; that we through him must be sanctified 
and receive faith, thereby being cleansed from all filthiness of the 
flesh and spirit. 

"Art. 4. We believe that the Bible is the word of God; that 
it contains the true way to our souls' well-being and salvation ; 
that every true Christian is bound to acknowledge and receive it, 
with the influences of the Spirit of God, as his only rule and guide ; 
and that without repentance, faith in Jesus Christ, forgiveness of 
sins, and following after Jesus Christ, no one can be a true Christian. 

" Art. 5. We believe that the doctrine which the Holy Scriptures 
contain, namely, the fall in Adam and salvation through Jesus 
Christ, shall be preached and proclaimed throughout the whole world. 

Reprinted from a pamphlet published in 1890. 
42 657 



658 APPENDICES 

"We recommend that the outward signs and ordinances, namely, 
baptism and the remembrance of the Lord in the distribution of 
the bread and wine, be observed ; also the washing of feet, where 
the same is desired." ^ 

THE CONFESSION IN GERMAN. 

THE ORIGINAL GEII:MAX TEXT OF THE CONFESSION OF FAITH OF 

THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST AS GIVEN IN 

THE DISCIPLINE OF 1815. 

( Original printed in German only. For a strict translation, see page 660. ) 

2>tt0 @(aufien§5©cfcnntm6 ber S!^ereimgten JBriibct in (^l^rifto. 

^m 3^amen @otte§ Befennen vo'ix t)or jebermann, ba^ toir g(au6en an ben einigen 
tt)af)ren ©ott, Skater, (So^n unb ^eiligen ©eift ; 'i^a^ btefe S)rer) ©ing ftnb, ber Sater 
im (So^n, ber ©o^n tm SSater unb berfeeitige ©eift gleic^eg SBefenmit beijben; 
ba^ btefer bregeintge ©ott §immel unb (Srben unb alleg wag barinnen tft, forool^l 
ftc^tl6ar alg unftrfitbar, erfc^affen l^at, trdgt, regiert, fc^ii^t unb er^alt. 

2Sir gtauBen an ^^\um S^riftum, ba^ er rca^rer ©ott unb 3JJenfc^ tft, ba^ er 
feine ittcnf(|n(^C 9ltttur burd^ hzn ^eiltgen ©eift in SWaria angenommen, unb oon 
il^r gebo^ren ; ba^ er §eilanb unb SSerfo^ner beg gansen inenfc^Iidjen ©efc^Iec^tg 
ift, raenn fie bie in ^efu angebotene ©nabe im @Iau6en an x^n anm^mm ; ba^ 
btefer ^efuS fitr ung getttten l^at, am ©tamme beg ^reu^eg geftorBen, BegraBen, 
am britten 2:^age trieber auferftanben, gen ^immel gefal^ren, raeld^er tft gur Sied^ten 
©otteg unb rertriti ung ; unb toieber fommen rairb, am jiingften Sage, §u rtd^ten 
bie l^eBenbigen unb bte Sobten. 

SBtr filttuktt Ott bctt ^ciligett ©ctft, ba^ er glcii^cg aSefcng m\i Ucm 35oter 
unU bettt ^o^ttr litt^ et ftott fie^iJCtt ouggc^t, bo^ tnir Jiurt^ i^n crleui^tet, 
buri^ bctt ©lauBett gcrcj^tfertiget tinjj gc^ctliget ttieriJcn. 

2Bir glouBctt eine ^eilige ©etnctniie, ©emcinfi^aft ber ^ciltgcn, Slufs 
erfte^ung beg ^JIetf(^e§ unti cttt etutgeS fiefien. 

2Bir gfauBen ba^ bie 33iBe(, alteg unb neueg Seftament, ©otteg SBort tft ; 'iia'^ 
fie 't^zn raa^ren 3Ceg gu unjerer ©eligfeit ent^atte, ba^ ein jeber toa^re (Efjrift, 
biefelBe utit "titn ©infliiffen beg ©eifteg ©otteg etn3tg unb allein gu feiner 3fitc^tfc^nur 
ttefimen foil, unb ba^ oE)ne ©tauBen an ^efum S^riftum, toal^re Su^e, ^ergeBung 
ber ©itnben unb Sf^ad^folge (Sl^rtfti, niemanb ein raafirer (El^rift fet)n !ann. 

SBir glauktt ba^ bie iie^re toelr^c tie ^eiltge Si^rift ent^alt, nemlic^ : 
ben %ali in 2(bam unb bte ©rlofung burd^ ^^\nm G^riftum, ber ganjen SBelt fottte 
geprebigt roerben. 

SBir glauBen ba^ bie ciu^ere ©natJensOJlittel in ben ©emetnben ©f^rifti geiiBt 
raerben foHten, nemltc^ : bie Saufe unb tog ©etdi^tni^ i)e§ 2^oJ)te0 teg §errn, 
in 5lu§t5cilung be! S^robg itnti SBeing, tic fottett na^ tern Sefc^I bcS #crrn 
Sefu, unter fettten ^inbern geiiBt tueriicn ; bie Slrt unb 2Beife foa aBer einem 

Translation of Manuscript Discipline, 1814. 



APPENDICES 659 

jebett txad^ feiner ®r!enntni^ iiberlafjen raerben. 2lucl^ bag ^e^fpiet t)on ^u^= 
wafc^en fte^et einem jeben frer). 

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE CONFESSIONS OF 1815 AND 1817. 

Menschliche Natur changed to Menschheit. 

The third paragraph, on the Holy Ghost, changed to read as 
follows : Wir glauben an den Heiligen Oeist^ dass er gleiches Wesens 
mit dem Vciter und Sohn, dass er die Gldubige troste und sie in alle 
Wahrheit leite. 

Heilige Gemeinde changed to Heilige Christliche Gemeinde. 

Dass die Lehre welche die Heilige Schrift enthdlt changed to dass 
die Heilige Schrift enthdlt. 

Gnaden-Mlitel changed to Mittel. 

Des Todtes des Herrn changed to des Todtes des Herrn Jesu. 

The following omitted in 1817: In Austheilung des Brods und 
Weins, die sollen nach dem Befehl des Herrn Jesu. 

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE CONFESSIONS IN DISCIPLINES OF 

1817 AND 1819. 

Bekennen wir changed to erkldren und bekennen wir. 

Eine heilige Christliche Gemeinde changed to an eine heilige Christ- 
liche Gemeinde. 

Wir glauben dass die dussere changed to Wir halten dafur^ dass die 
dussere. 

TJnter seinen Kindern geiXbt werden changed to Dass es seinen 
E:indern oblieget dieselbe besonders zu ilben. 

The Confession in Discipline of 1821 is the same as that in Disci- 
pline of 1819. 

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE CONFESSIONS OF 1821 AND 1825. 

Wir halten dafur^ dass die dussere Mittel in den Gemeinden Christi 
changed to Wir sind uberzeugt dass die dusseren Gnaden- Mittel. 

Des Todes des Herrn Jesu changed to Des Todes unsers Herrn Jesu 
Christi. 

In den Gemeinden Christi changed to in alien Christlichen 
Gemeinden. 

Dass es seinen Kindern oblieget dieselbe besonders zu ilben changed 
to Dass es Kindern Gottes besonders geziemet^ dieselben zu gebrauchen. 

Die Art und Weise aber soil einem jeden nach seiner Erkenntniss 
uberlassen werden. Auch das Beyspiel von Fusswaschen stehet einem 
jeden frey changed to Die Art und Weise aber^ wie dieselbe geiXbf 
werden sollen^ soil dem Urtheil und dem Erkenntniss eines jeglichen 
uberlassen seyn. Auch das Beyspiel des Fusswaschens stehet einem 
jeden frey zu ilben oder zu unterlassen. 



660 APPENDICES 

All of the following was added to the Confession of 1825 : 
' ' Jedoch ist es keinem unserer Prediger geziemend, seinen Mit- 
hruder^ dessert Urtheil und Erkenntniss von dem seinigen verschieden 
ist, desswegen offentUeh oder in PHvat zu verkleinern, oder seine Art 
und Weise, ime er dieselhe uht, zu verachten; luer sich Merin schuldig 
macht, soil als ein VerlduTuder seiner BriXder geachtet, und deshalb der 
jdhrlichen Confer enz verantwortlieh seyn.''"' 

CONFESSIONS OF 1825 AND 1833 COMPARED. 

AufersteJiung des Eleisehes changed to Auferstehung des Leibes. 
Dass die dusseren Onaden-Mittel changed to Dass die dussei'en 
Verordnwigen. 

CONFESSIONS OF 1837 AND 1841 COMPARED. 

Unserer Prediger geziemend changed to unserer Prediger oder 
Gemeindes-gliedern geziemend. 

Deshalb der jdhrlichen Conferenz verantwortlieh sein changed to 
deshalb veranttuortlich sein. 

CONFESSIONS OF 1845 AND 1857 COMPARED. 

Erkenntniss von dem seinigen changed to Erkenntniss von dem 
seinigen in diesen Beziehungen. 

Wer sich hierin schuldig macht changed to Wer sich dessen schuldig 
•macht. 

Various other changes in the German form were made after 1845. 
The words in diesen Beziehungen, meaning "in these respects," 
were not introduced into the German Discipline until 1857. 

THE CONFESSION IN ENGLISH. 
TRANSLATION OF CONFESSION OF 1815. 

("Words in italics indicate additions to or changes in the Confession in use prior 
to 1815. Words in brackets indicate omissions from that Confession. ) 

No English translation of the German Confession of 1815 was made 
at the time. The following is a strict translation of it : 

"[Article 1.] In the name of God we confess before all men, 
that we believe in the only true God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; 
that these three are one, the Father in the Son, the Son in the 
Father, and the Holy Ghost equal in essence with both; that this 
triune God created heaven and earth, and all that in them is, \i.sible 
as well as invisible, [and] sustains, governs, protects, and supports 
the same. 

" [ Art. 2.] We believe in Jesus Christ; that he is very God and 
man; that he, by the Holy Ghost, assumed his human nature in Mary, 



APPENDICES 661 

and was horn of her; that he is the Saviour and Redeemer of the 
whole human race, if they with faith in him accept the grace prof- 
fered in Jesus; that this Jesus suffered and died on the cross for us, 
was buried, rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven, and 
sitteth on the right hand of God to intercede for us ; and that he shall 
come again, at the last day, to judge the living and the dead. 

"[Art. 3.] We believe in the Holy Ghost; that he is equal in 
being with the Father and the Son; that he proceeds from both; that 
we are through him, enlightened; through faith justified and sanctified. 

"TFe believe in a holy church, communion of saints, resurrection 
of the flesh, and a life everlasting.'^ 

*' [ Art. 4.] We believe that the Bible, Old and New Testament, is 
the word of God ; that it contains the true way to our [ souls' well- 
being and] salvation; that every true Christian is bound to 
[acknowledge and] receive it with the influences of the Spirit of 
God, as his only rule [and guide]; and that without /m^ A in Jesus 
Christ, true penitence, forgiveness of sins, and following after [ Jesus ] 
Christ, no one can be a true Christian. 

"[Art. 5.] We believe that the doctrine which the Holy Scrip- 
tures contain, namely, the fall in Adam and the redemption through 
Jesus Christ, shall be preached [and proclaimed] throughout the 
whole world. 

"We believe that the outward means of grace are to be in use in 
all Christian societies, namely: that baptism and the remembrance 
of the death of the Lord in the distribution of the bread and wine 
are to be in use among his children, according to the command of 
the Lord Jesus; the mode and manner, however, shall be left to the 
judgment of every one. Also, the example of feet-washing remains 
free to every one.^'' 

CONFESSION AS TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN INTO ENGLISH 

A.ND FOUND IN THE DISCIPLINE BEARING DATE 1819, 

THIS BEING THE FIRST TRANSLATION INTO 

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 

( Words in italics indicate additions to or changes in the Confession of 1815. Words 
in brackets indicate omissions from that Confession.) 

''''The Confession of Faith of the United Brethren in Christ. 

"In the name of God wc declare and confess before all men, that 
we believe in the only true God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; 
that these three are one, the Father in the Son, the Son in the 
Father, and the Holy Ghost equal in essence or being with both; 
that this triune God created the heavens and the earth, and all that 

^This paragraph was not in the Confession prior to 1815. 



662 APPENDICES 

in them is, visible as well as invisible; and furthermore sustains, 
governs, protects, and supports the same. 

"We believe in Jesus Christ; that he is very God and man; that 
he became mcamate by the power of the Holy Ghost in the virgin 
Mary, and was born of her ; that he is the Saviour and Mediator of 
the whole human race, if they with full faith in him accept the 
grace proffered in Jesus; that this Jesus suffered and died on the 
cross for us, was buried, arose again on the third day, ascended into 
heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God to intercede for us ; 
and that he shall come again at the last day to judge the quick and 
the dead. 

"We believe in the Holy Ghost, that he is equal in being with the 
Father and the Son, and that he comforts the faithful, and guides 
them into all truth. 

"We believe in a holy Christian church, the communion of saints, 
the resurrection of the body, and [a] life everlasting. 

"We believe that the Holy Bible, Old and New Testaments, is the 
word of God ; that it contains the only true way to our salvation ; 
that every true Christian is bound to acknowledge and receive it 
with the influence of the Spirit of God, as their only rule and guide; 
and that without faith in Jesus Christ, as also true penitence, for- 
giveness of sins, and following after Christ, no one can be a true 
Christian. 

"We also believe that what is contained in the Holy Scriptures, 
to wit: the fall in Adam and the redemption thi'ough Jesus Christ, 
shall be preached throughout the [whole] world. 

"We further think that the outward m,eans, namely, baptism and 
the remembrance of the sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus, are to 
be in use and practiced in all Christian societies ; and that it is incum- 
bent on his children particularly to practice them. But the manner in 
ivhich ought always to be left to the judgment and understanding of 
each. So also the practice or example of washing the feet must 
remain free to the judgment of every one." i 

1825. 

The General Conference of 1825 so changed the Confession of 
Faith after the phrase, "shall be preached throughout the world," 
as to read as follows: 

"We are convinced that the outward means of grace, namely, 
baptism and the remembrance of the sufferings and death of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, are to be in use and practiced by all Christian 
societies, and that it is incumbent on all the children of God, par- 
ticularly, to practice them ; but the manner in which ought always 

1 This paragraph was recast throughout. 



APPENDICES 663 

to be left to the judgment and understanding of every individual. 
So also the [ practice or ] example of washing the feet is left to the 
judgment of every one to practice or not; hut it is not becoming any 
of our preachers to traduce any of his brethren whose judgment and 
understanding in this respect are different from his own^ either in 
public or in private; whosoever shall nfiahe himself guilty in this respect 
shall be accounted a traducer of his brethren and shall therefore be 
answerable to the annual conference.^ ^ 

1833. 

The General Conference of 1833 made further changes, as follows : 
"And that without faith in Jesus Christ, true repentance, forgiveness 
of sins, and following after Christ, no one can be a true Christian." 
" We believe that the ordinances, namely, baptism and the remem- 
brance of the sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, are to be 
in use and practiced by all Christian societies ; and that it is incum- 
bent on all the children of God, particularly, to practice them ; but 
the manner in which ought always to be left to the judgment and 
understanding of every individual. So, also, the example of washing 
the feet is left to the judgment of every one to practice or not ; but it 
is not becoming any of our preachers to traduce any of his brethren 
whose judgment and understanding in this respect are different from 
his own, either in public or in private ; whosoever shall make him- 
self guilty in this respect shall be accounted a traducer of his 
brethren, and shall therefor be answerable to the annual conference." 

1837. 

The General Conference of 1837 so changed the closing sentence 
above as to make it read thus: "Whosoever shall make himself 
guilty in this respect shall be considered a traducer of his brethren, 
and shall be answerable for the same to the annual conference." 

This General Conference also adopted a constitution, in which 
occur the words, "Nothing shall be done so as to change the article 
of faith." 

The General Conference of 1841 again amended the Confession 
of Faith as follows (new words in italics, words omitted in brackets) : 
"Also, the example of washing [the] feet is left to the judgment of 
every one to practice or not; but it is not becoming for any of our 
preachers or members to traduce any of his brethren whose judgment 
and understanding in this respect are different from his own, either 
in public or [ in ] private. Whosoever shall make himself guilty in 
this respect shall be considered a traducer of his brethren, and shall 
be answerable for the same [to the annual conference]." 



664 APPENDICES 

The is left out in the phrase " washing the feet." 
For is inserted in *'it is not becoming for any of our preachers." 
The words or members are inserted after "preachers." 
^ is omitted before "private." 
The words " to the annual conference " are left out. 
This is the General Conference that made and adopted the old 
Constitution. 

1845. 

The General Conference of 1845 changed the words, "to traduce 
any of his brethren whose judgment and understanding in this 
respect are different from his own," to "to traduce any of their 
brethren whose judgment and understanding in this respect are 
different from their own." 

1857. 

The General Conference of 1857 changed the words "in this 
respect" in the Confession of Faith as occurring after the words 
"and understanding" to the words "in these respects." 

It should be noted that the General Conference did all this. 
Nothing was ever submitted to the voice of the membership prior 
to 1888. 



APPENDIX II 

DECISIONS OF THE SUPREME AND CIRCUIT COURTS OF 
OHIO IN THE PUBLISHING HOUSE SUIT^ 

DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF OHIO. 

No. 3,001. Halleck Floyd et al. v. David L. Hike et al.; Mont- 
gomery County. The case has been fully and exhaustively con- 
sidered in the opinion of the Circuit Court, as announced by Shearer, 
J., Bike et al. v. Floyd et al, 6 O. C. C. Reports, 80. We fully 
affirm the reasoning of the Court and the conclusions there rendered. 
Judgment affirmed. Shauck, J., did not sit in the case. 

DECISION OF THE CIRCUIT COURT, SECOND CIRCUIT, 
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, OHIO.* 

JUNE TERM, 1891. 

Charles C. Shearer, ) 

Gilbert H. Stewart, )■ Jvudges. 

James M. Smith, J 

(Judge Smith, of the First Circuit, taking the place of Judge Shauck.) 

David L. Rike et al., Trustees, ^ 

vs. V 

Halleck Floyd et al. J 

OPINION. 

Sheaker, J. 

Under the issues presented by the above-quoted pleadings ^ a large 
amount of testimony, oral and documentary, has been introduced ; 
and without entering into an analysis of the evidence, we, in com- 
pliance with the request of counsel, and to enable them to except 
to the decision upon the questions of law involved in the trial, state 
our conclusions of fact found, separately from our conclusions of law, 
as follows : 

Findings of Fact. 

[ A large number of facts found are here omitted as not necessary 

1 See p. 391. 

2 See 6 Ohio Circuit Court Reports, 80. 

3 The petition of the plaintiffs, the answer and cross-petition of the defend- 
ants, and the reply of the plaintiffs precede t"he opinion, and are here omitted. 

665 



666 APPENDICES 

to an understanding of the opinion, and as matter well known to 

the Church.— Ed.] 

* * * 

It is further found, that since the General Conference of 1889 the 
doctrine and beliefs preached and taught by both "Liberals" and 
"Radicals" in no wise differ from those preached and taught by the 
Church of the United Brethren in Christ prior to said General Con- 
ference. All the distinctive principles, ceremonies, usages, and 
customs have been retained and practiced in the Church by the 
"Liberals" as fully and strict^ as was done before the adoption 
of the re\4sed Confession and amended Constitution, except that 
they have admitted to membership in the Church members of secret 
organizations. 

It is further found, that said amended Constitution and Confes- 
sion of Faith were adopted by the General Conference of the Church, 
upon the request of the requisite number of the membership, and 
in good faith ; that said re^^ed Confession of Faith is not antago- 
nistic to the doctrines, faith, or belief of the Church as they existed 
at the date of the several conveyances in the petition mentioned, 
or since ; that there is no substantial or material difference between 
the old and new Confessions of Faith. 

It is further found, that said election of the said plaintiffs as 
trustees and of said Shuey as publishing agent was had in all respects 
as required by the rules and regulations of the Church ; and that 
said plaintiffs and said Shuey severally accept the amended Con- 
stitution and revised Confession of Faith, and claim to be acting 
under and in accordance with the same. 

Such is our finding of facts. The next inquiry is as to the con- 
clusions of law to be deduced therefrom. 

Conclusions of Law. 

Much time has been devoted by counsel to the history and legisla- 
tion of the United Brethren Church from its foundation in the last 
centurj', interesting and instructive, but of little value as an aid 
to the solution of the questions involved in this controversy. 

We have found the Constitution of 1841 to be valid organic law 
from the time of its adoption until May 13, 1889, at which time the 
change was made the validity of which the defendants challenge. 
That instrument provides (Article II., Section -4) that "Xo rule or 
ordinance shall at any time be passed to change or do awaj^ the 
Confession of Faith as it now stands, nor to destroy the itinerant 
plan"; and Article IV. ordains that "There shaU be no alteration 
of the foregoing Constitution, unless by request of two-thirds of the 
whole society." 



APPENDICES 667 

Was there such request? The Constitution is silent as to the 
method by which this "request" shall be preferred, leaving the 
Conference to suggest, or the people to adopt, any form of request 
they may deem proper. The General Conference appointed a Com- 
mission to formulate an amended Constitution and a revised Con- 
fession of Faith, and provided that such Commission should "adopt 
and cause to be executed a plan by which such measures should 
receive the largest possible attention and expression of approval or 
disapproval by our people," etc. 

The largest publicity was given to the pendency of these measures 
through the official organs of the Church, by pamphlets, from the 
pulpit, and otherwise, as well as of the time when the vote would 
be taken. Ballots were prepared and circulated throughout the 
membership, and every means adopted to secure a full expression 
of the views of the membership upon the proposed changes. 

Following this, after a three years' canvass, came the election, 
at which an extraordinarily large vote was cast. 

In pursuance of the plan of the Conference in that behalf, returns 
of the vote were made from the annual conferences to the General 
Board of Tellers, at Dayton, Ohio, and that board in turn prepared 
and returned to the Board of Bishops a consolidated abstract of the 
vote, which showed a majority in favor of the amendments largely 
in excess of two-thirds of the votes polled, even if the 16,187 mem- 
bers protesting, but not voting, were counted as voting "No." 

Was not this almost unanimous vote in favor of the proposed 
amendments a "request"? Was it necessary that the "request" 
should proceed from the membership without any suggestion from 
any quarter that it be made? Why might not the Conference 
advise or suggest that such "request" be made? No reason occurs 
to us why it might not, nor why a request so made would be 
unconstitutional. 

The objection on this score is more technical than substantial. 
The vote was a "request." 

But defendants say, conceding said request to be sufficient, the 
Constitution required it to be by "two-thirds of the whole society." 

But what should be the construction of the phrase "two-thirds 
of the whole society"? Does it mean two-thirds of the entire num- 
ber borne upon the Church rolls as members ? Or does it mean 
two-thirds of those voting ? 

We do not think the fathers who ordained the Constitution of 
1841 intended to follow the example of the Medes and Persians, and 
fetter future generations for all time, unless two-thirds of all the 
members — men, women, children, non-communicants, those " beyond 
sea," African converts, and all — should request the change. Such 



668 APPENDICES 

construction can hardly be insisted upon, in the hght of the testi- 
mony that the Church was opposed to "numbering Israel" at the 
time of the adoption of the Constitution of 1841, and for many years 
afterwards. 

The framers of the rule must have meant that two-thirds of those 
voting should be sufficient ; otherwise, how were they to determine 
that the requisite majority had voted for or against a measure, there 
being no provision for an enumeration, and the Church being 
opposed to making one? 

We are bound to assume that the rule was made in the hght of 
the fact that enumerations were not favored, and that, therefore, the 
phrase was used in its generally accepted sense — two-thirds of those 
voting. 

The Constitution of 1837 provided that "No General Conference 
shall have power to alter or amend the foregoing Constitution, except 
it be by a vote of two-thirds of that body." 

Under this limitation, could not the General Conference, by a 
vote of two-thirds of a quorum, change the organic law, although 
strictly the phrase "two-thirds of that body" means two-thhds of 
all the members of that body? AVe think so. And so the phrase 
"two-thirds of the members of the whole society," while it literally 
signifies two-thirds of all the members of the Church, means, in the 
sense in which it is used in the Constitution of 1841, two-thirds of 
those members who vote. 

In Carroll County v. Smithy 111 United States, which concerned an 
election held under a statute of Mississippi, authorizing subscriptions 
to the capital stock of a railroad company by municipalities upon 
certain conditions, among which was the submission of the question 
"to the qualified voters of said county, city, etc., . . . and if two- 
thirds of the quahfied voters vote in favor of the subscription, . . . 
the constituted authorities . . . are authorized and required to 
subscribe," etc., Mr. Justice Matthews held that an assenting vote 
of two-thirds of the whole number enrolled as qualified to vote 
was not required, but that two-thirds of those actually voting at 
the election was sufficient. 

And in Walker v. Oswald^ 68 Md., 146, the Court say : "When an 
election is held at which a subject matter is to be determined by 
a majority of the voters entitled to cast ballots thereat, those 
absenting themselves, and those who, being present, abstain from 
voting, are considered as acquiescing in the result declared by a 
majority of those actually voting, even though, in point of fact, 
but a minority of those entitled to vote really do vote." 

See also St. Joseph v. Rogers^ 16 AVall., 663; Wardens of Christ 
Church V. Pope, 8 Gray, 140-43; Richardson v. Society^ 58 X. H., 188; 



APPENDICES 669 

Greene. Weller, 32 Miss., 850; Prohib. Amen't Cases, 24 Kans., 200 
Dayton v. SL Paul, 22 Minn., 400; Illller v. English, 24 N. J. L., 17 
County of Cass v. Johnston, 95 U. S., 360; 72 111., 63; 1 Sneed, 690 
10 Minn., 85; 37 Mo., 270; 69 Ind., 505; 20 Amer. Corp. Cases, 93 
McCraiy on Elections, 173. 

But we are not confined to secular authority, for in accord with 
the above cases is the interpretation of the Constitution by the 
General Conference, the court of last resort of the Church. That 
it construed the plirase "whole society'' to mean those voting upon 
the changes, is apparent from the provision in the plan of submission 
that said changes should be held to be adopted when two-thirds 
of the members who voted upon them were found to have voted 
affirmatively. And the approval by the General Conference of 1889 
of the report of the Commission which set out the vote upon the 
changes, is an affirmance of such interpretation. 

It being clear that a majority of two-thirds of those voting was 
sufficient for the adoi)tion of the amended Constitution and the 
revised Confession of Faith, the next question is, whether the 
adoption of the latter operated to "change or do away the Con- 
fession of Faith" as it stood prior to the revision. 

This question must be answered in the negative. Changes have 
been made, but in no material or substantial respect. They consist 
in alterations of phraseology without changing the sense, and in the 
addition of statements of doctrine which have been taught and 
believed by the Church from its foundation, and which, while not 
expressed in the old, are comprehended by implication, No new 
doctrine is introduced, no old dogma or article of faith is eliminated. 
The revised Confession involves no departure from the faith of the 
Church as taught from the beginning. 

That the old Confession of Faith permitted latitudinarianism, 
while the new is more exxDlicit and inflexible, is urged as a reason 
why we should hold that there has been a departure from the 
standards of the Church, so serious as to destroy its identity. 

But, as we have seen, there is no statement of doctrine in the new 
Confession which has not always been taught and believed by the 
Church ; and as a creed is a mere system of principles jDrofessed or 
believed, we can perceive no impropriety in expressing in orderly form 
those principles which, although believed and accepted as distinctive 
doctrine, are not formulated, or, if stated, are crude or equivocal. 

If the revised Confession makes no change in the doctrines of the 
Church, it is not to be condemned for its greater certainty and 
perspicuity as compared with the creed which it supplants. Obscure 
and equivocal language may be commendable in a political platform, 
but should find no place in articles of religious faith. 



670 APPEXDICES 

We cannot assent to the claims of counsel that the concession that 
the new Confession differs from the old involves the admission that 
the new establishes different doctrine. ]Mere verbal changes do not 
necessarily alter the doctrine ; neither does the expression in the new 
Confession of that which is implied in the old have that effect. 

One of the defendants, upon his examination, admitted that the 
doctrines stated in the revised Confession of Faith are not un- 
scriptural, nor antagonistic to the teachings of the Church prior to 
the separation. Yet it is contended that there have been seven 
omissions of doctrine — five alterations directly, and others indirectly, 
and twenty additions. Among the seven " omissions " is the "disci- 
l^linarj^ rule against traducing brethren." Xo knowledge of theology 
is necessary to understand that rules of polity have no ]Drox)er place 
in a creed or confession of faith. The remaining six "omissions" 
are not apparent from a comparison of the two creeds. The doctrines 
supx)osed to be omitted are fairly imxDlied in the new Confession. 

Without further illustration, we are clear, as we have already 
said, that no substantial or material changes have been made in 
the creed of the Church. The efforts of those learned in theology 
to bring to light essential differences savor more of the ecclesiastical 
hair-splitting of the era of XDolemics and scholasticism, than of these 
days of advanced thought and practical Christianity. 

But if our conclusions in this regard are wrong, is not the decision 
of the General Conference, the supreme judicatory of the Church, 
conclusive ? 

Controversies in the civil courts concerning the property rights 
of that class of religious societies to which the Church of the United 
Brethren in Christ belongs, namely, the class having an ascending 
series of judicatories, such as official boards, quarterly conferences, 
annual conferences, and a General Conference, are to be decided, 
where the title is held by purchase, by reference to this proposition: 
That where the right of x^i'operty in the civil court is dependent 
on the question of doctrine, discipline, ecclesiastical law, rule, 
custom, or church government, and that has been decided by the 
highest tribunal within the organization to which it has been carried, 
the civil court will accept that decision as conclusive, and be gov- 
erned by it in its application to the case before it. Watson v. Jones^ 
13 WaU., 679, 727. 

The doctrine just stated seeins to answer affirmatively the question 
above propounded. This controversy grows out of questions of jDurely 
ecclesiastical cognizance ; and the General Conference, having juris- 
diction by virtue of the request of two-thirds of the whole society, 
decided them adversely to the defendants, and such decision is final 
and conclusive. Connittx. Ref. Prot. Dutch Ch., 54 X. Y., 551; Wat- 



APPENDICES 671 

Mns V. Wilcox, 66 N. Y., 654; Chase v. Cheney, 38 111., 511; White 
Lick Qual^er Case, 89 Ind., 136; Harrison v. Hoyle, 24 O. S., 254; 45 
Pa. St., 1; 45 Mo., 183; Oaff^. Greet, 88 Ind., 122; Shannons. Frost, 
3 B. Mon., 253; Gibson v. Armstrong, 7 B. Mou., 481; Harmon v. 
Dreher, 1 Speer's Eq., 87; High on Injunctions, Sees. 310, 314. 

It follows, also, from what we have said, that there has been no 
perversion of the trusts vested in plaintiffs. Such perversion, to 
entitle the party alleging it to relief, must be clearly shown ; it must 
be a plain and radical departure. See Gable v. Miller, 2 Denio, 
492, 548; 66 N. Y., 654; 38 N. H., 460; 33 111., 398; 61 HI., 405; 41 
Pa. St., 13. 

Other questions have been discussed, but they are not deemed 
material to the decision of the case. 

It follows, and we state as conclusions of law : 

That the plaintiffs are the lawful trustees of said Printing Estab- 
lishment; and that said Shuey is the duly elected and qualified 
publishing agent of said Church ; that said plaintiffs as such trustees 
are entitled to the possession, management, and control of said real 
and other property in the petition described, and to have the title 
thereto quieted in them and their successors, against the said adverse 
claims of the said defendants and each and every of them. 

That said defendants have not, nor has any of them, any right, 
title, or claim to the possession, management, or control of any 
of the property aforesaid, as trustees or otherwise, nor to any of the 
proceeds thereof; and they and their successors ought to be forever 
restrained and enjoined from in any wise interfering with the 
plaintiffs as trustees and the said Shuey as publishing agent, or 
their successors, in the possession, management, and control of said 
property, or the proceeds thereof. 

That said defendants are not, nor is any of them, entitled to any 
relief sought by them, or any of them, herein, and their several 
cross-petitions will be dismissed at their costs. 

Decree accordingly. 
Gunckel <k Rowe, and J. A. McMahon, for Plaintiffs. 
William Lawrence, George W. Honk, and Young & Young^ for 
Defendants. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Academies and colleges, 477, 641. 
Africa, missions in, of general board, 

434. 
of woman's board, 462. 
conference in, 632. 
Agents of the Publishing House, 418, 

638. 
Albright, Jacob, 192, 193, 194, 195. 
Allegheny Conference, 573, 488. 
Allen, Samuel B., 501, 502. 
Altman, Nehemiah, 284, 414, 418, 638, 

639. 
Ambrose, M. H., 511. 
American Missionary Association, 436, 

442. 
Annual conferences, 555. 

time of organization, 642. 
Antrim, Jacob, 406, 557. 
Appendices, 657. 
Archer, Mary, 468. 
Arkansas Valley Conference, 625. 
Arnold, Valentine, 26, 27, 39, 40, 41. 
Asbury, Francis, 49, 86, 87, 189, 190, 193, 

210, 211. 
quoted, 86, 210, 212, 221. 
ordination of, 211, 212. 
Auglaize Conference, 593. 
Avalon College, 511. 

BALTZEiiii, Isaiah, 572, 654. 
Bangs, Nathan, quoted, 200, 212, 221. 

cited, 173. 
Bartlett, Norman B., 504, 506. 
Baulus, Jacob, 239, 162, 171, 175, etc. 
Beal, A. M., 356, 361, 377, 496, 500. 
Beardshear, William M., 356, 361, 377, 

496, 500, 557. 
Beeken, Emily, 463. 
Bell, William M., 452, 417, 450, 588, 639. 
Benedum, George, 240, 175, 181, 185, 186, 

222. 
Berger, Christian, 238, 174, 175, 176, 179, 

182, 183, 194, 222, etc., 627. 
Berger, Daniel, 387, 393, 413, 414, 423, 525, 

638, 651, 653. 



Bible Normal Union, 538, 650. 

Bibliography, 651. 

Biddle, Alexander, 267, 560, 578. 

Bierman, E. Benjamin, 507, 508, 509. 

Bigler, Regina, 473, 474. 

Billheimer, J. K., 438, 439, 440, 453, 557, 

613, 639. 
Billheimer, Mrs. A. L., 296, 439, 440, 462, 

613. 
Bischoff, C, 447, 469. 
Bishops, 637. 

ordination of, 650. 
Bittle, Elma, 468. 
Board of Education, 531, 324, 640. 
Board of Trustees of the Church, 549. 
Boehm, Henry, 162, 167, 169. 

quoted, 168, 200, 211, 213. 

cited, 198. 
Boehm, Martin, 63, 113, 134, 135, 145, 161, 
162, 167, 170 ff., 197, 650. 

in Virginia, 72. 

and Otterbein, 78. 

and the Mennonites, 114. 

and the Methodist Church, 197 ff. 

death, 197. 
Bonebrake, D., 563. 
Bonebrake, Henry, 267. 
Bonnet's School-house, 223. 
Book publications, 417. 
Bookwalter, Lewis, 500, 351, 354, 357, 361, 

377, 496, 502, 519, 557, 640, 652, 654. 
Booth, Benjamin F., 452, 393, 550, 627, 

639. 
Bowersox, C. A., 493. 
Brane, C. I. B., 457, 628, 629, 639. 
Bright, John C, 303, 427, 428, 451, 578, 639. 
Brooke, C. M., 504, 505, 506, 602. 
Brown, William, 258, 246, 254, 260, 637, 

650. 
Buckley, J. M., quoted, 216. 
Bufkin, L. H., 501, 609. 
Burtner, L. O., 443, 444, 445, 629. 
Burtner, Mrs. L. O., 443, 444, 445. 



CAIN, I. N., 604. 



675 



676 



INDEX 



California Conference, 607. 
Canada Conference, see Ontario Con- 
ference. 
Cardwell, W. A., 432, 602. 
Carter, T. C, 614, 631. 
Cascade Conference, see Columbia 

River Conference. 
Castle, Nicholas, 341, 356, 361, 372, 375, 

377, 382, 550, 588, 637, 650. 
Central Illinois Conference, 611. 
Central Ohio Conference, 622. 
Chickamauga Conference, 630. 
Children's Friend, 413. 
China, mission in, 472, 632. 
Chinese missions, 470. 
Chittenden, L. S., 483, 563, 654. 
Church, the, 641. 

historical outline, 641. 

growth in membership, 642. 

statistics, 644 ff. 

name adopted, 163. 
Church Commission, see Commission. 
Church-Erection Society, 454, 324, 639. 

organization, 454. 

progress and work, 455. 
Circle ville. Publishing House at, 256, 407. 
Clark, Rufus, and Mrs., 445, 619. 
Clark Training School, 445, 522. 
Colleges and academies, 477, 641. 
Colorado Conference, 618. 
Columbia River Conference, 612. 
Commission, Church, 352, 353, 360. 

authorized, 352. 

naembers of, 356. 

meeting of, 360. 

report of, 375. 

approval of work of, 378. 

proclamation of bishops, 381. 
Conclusion, 633. 
Conference, first, 1789, 132. 

second, 1791, 144. 

of 1800, 160. 

of 1801, 169. 

of 1802, 170. 

of 1803, 174. 

of 1804, 174. 

of 1805, 175. 

of 1806, 178. 

of 1807, 178. 

of 1808, 178. 

of 1809, 179. 

of 1810, 179. 
Conferences, annual, 555. 

time of organization, 642. 

General, see General Conference. 



Confession of Faith, 137, 226, 271, 349, 
362, 657. 

first, 1789, 137. 

of 1815, 226. 

revision of, 349 fl". 

of 1889, 362. 

its various changes, 657. 
Connor, T. J., 429, 598, 612. 
Constitution, 261, 268, 349 fl; 

.first, 1837, 261. 

second, 1841, 268. 

amendment of, 349 fl; 

third, 1889, 365. 
Coons, John, 277, 260, 264, 267, 480, 557, 

561, 562, 637, 650. 
Correspondence, friendly, with the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, 187. 

with the Evangelical Association, 
192. 
Cowden, Robert, 539, 640, 652. 

quoted, 536. 
Cowell, A. L., 514. 
Cronise, Florence, 468. 
Crouse, Isaac, 537, 538, 579. 
Crum, Christian, 241, 145, 162, 175, 185. 
Curtis, E. W., 609. 

Dakota Conference, see Elkhorn 

and Dakota Conference. 
Dashields, George, 209. 
Davis, Lewis, 310, 393, 428, 486, 488, 492, 

524 fl:, 562, 637, 650, 654. 
quoted, 300, 301. 
Davis, William, 260, 264, 267, 492, 496, 499, 

581, 586. 
quoted, 581. 
Dayton, removal of Publishing House 

to, 304, 408. 
headquarters of the societies of the 

Church, 453, 641. 
Decisions of courts, 394 fl; 

in the Publishing House suit, 394, 

665. 
Degmeier, Julius, 491, 639. 
Departments of church work, 405. 
Departure of the leaders, 197. 
Depravity question, 306. 
Des Moines Conference, 608. 
Deutsche Teleskop, 414. 
Dickson, John, 338, 356, 360, 372, 375, 382 

387, 526, 550, 569, 637, 650. 
Dickson, W. A., 543, 545, 547, 640. 
Dillenburg, 20, 21, 22. 
Disciplinary rules, 142, 184, 226. 
Discipline, Book of, 226, 228, 245. 



INDEX 



677 



Disciplines, printing of, 228, 245, 405. 
Disciplines, 1814-1841, quoted, 138, 139, 
165. 
cited, 144, 226, 230. 
Dodds, John, 558, 423, 428, 463, 550. 
Doi, S., 448, 450. 
Doran, David W., 519. 
Draksel, Abraham, 154, 135, 145, 162, 171, 

181, 183, etc. 
Dresbach, George, 256, 272, 638. 
Dresbach, Jonathan, 256, 272, 638. 
Droke, J. D., 519, 614. 
Drury, A. W., 528, 271, 586, 638, 640, 650, 
651, 653, 654, 657. 
"Life of Otterbein," quoted, 20, 22, 
26, 28, 29, 31, etc. 
cited, 52, 59, 86, 127. 
"Life of Glossbrenner," quoted, 287. 
cited, 291. 
Drury, Marion R., 421, 413, 543, 545, 547, 

586, 638, 651. 
Drury, M. S., 501, 586. 

East Gebman Conference, 615. 
East Nebraska Conference, 619. 
East Ohio Conference, 626. 
East Pennsylvania Conference, 571, 281. 
Eastern Conference, 180. See Original 

Conference. 
Eaton, Minnie, 468. 
Eberly, Daniel, 493, 524. 
Editors, of Religious Telescope, 412, 413, 
420, 638. 

Sunday-school, 413, 414, 423, 638. 

German, 414, 422, 639. 

of Watchivord, 415, 639. 

of Woman'' s Evangel, 417, 474, 639. 

of Search Light, 417, 450, 452, 453, 639. 

of Unity Magazine, 416, 638. 

of Quarterly Review, 416, 638. 
Education, 281, 310, 477, 523, 531. 

Board of, 531, 324, 640. 

theological, 523. 
Educational institutions, 477, 523, 641, 649. 

students in, 641. 

property of, 649. 
Edwards, David, 298, 281, 284, 310, 428, 

479, 526, 562, 637, 638, 650, 654. 
Edwards, Jonathan, 17, 18. 
Edwards Academy, 519. 
Elkhorn Conference, see Elkhorn and 

Dakota Conference. 
Elkhorn and Dakota Conference, 617. 
Emigration of Germans to America, 
32 ff. 



Emrick, B. E., 510, 599. 

Erb, Jacob, 273, 260, 264, 267, 282, 284, 406, 
414, 430, 568, 637, 639, 650, 654. 

Erie Conference, 597. 

Erie Conference Seminary, 520. 

Ernst, John, 135, 145. 

Ervin, S. B., 504, 557. 

Etter, John W., 387, 414, 416, 423, 528, 572, 
638,654. 

Evangelical Association, friendly cor- 
respondence with, 182, 192. 

Evans, J. R., 357, 361, 377, 617. 

Evinger, Henry, 185, 246, 406. 

Farmer, Aaron, 406,563. 

Faust, S. D., 528, 572, 640. 

Fetterhoflf, J., 260, 264. 

Fix, E. E., 473, 474, 475. 

Fix, Mrs. E. E., 473, 474, 475. 

Flickinger, Daniel K., 357, 372, 375, 382, 

413, 436 ff-., 451, 525, 557, 632, 637, 639, 

650, 652 fl: 
Floyd, Halleck, 377, 379, 384, 392, 590, 665. 
Fox River Conference, see Wisconsin 

Conference. 
Frederick City, Otterbejin at, 55. 
Freemasonry, 283, 331. 
Friendly correspondence, with the 

Methodist Episcopal Church, 187. 
with the Evangelical Association, 

192. 
Fries, J. N., 518. 

Fries, W. O., 423, 493, 516, 544, 545, 548. 
Frbhliche Botschafter, 414. 
Fulkerson, J. W., 351, 603, 604. 
Funk, John F., quoted, 114, 115, 116. 
Funkhouser, A. P., 496, 500, 518, 567. 
Funkhouser, George A., 356, 361, 369, 377, 

525, 526, 527, 528, 576, 638. 

Garst, Henry, 493, 494, 356, 361, 377, 524, 
652. 

quoted, 238, 294. 
General Conference, first, 1815, 217. 

second, 1817, 244. 

third, 1821, 246. 

fourth, 1825, 251. 

fifth, 1829, 253. 

sixth, 1833, 254. 

seventh, 1837, 260. 

eighth, 1841, 267. 

ninth, 1845, 280. 

tenth, 1849, 282. 

1853-1861, 303. 

1865-1881, 323. 



INDEX 



nineteenth, 1885, 349. 
twentieth, 1889, 372. 
twenty-first, 1893, 399. 
date and place of meeting of each, 
642. 
George, J., 516. 
German periodicals, 414, 273. 
German the early language of the 

Church, 230. 
Germany, mission in, 447, 631. 

woraan's mission in, 469. 
Germany Conference, 631. 
Geschaftige Martha, 273, 414. 
Gilbert, William S., 510. 
Glossbrenner, Jacob J., 284, 260, 264, 267, 
280, 281, 282, 306, 310, 356, 361, 428, 
480, 525, 526, 566, 637, 650. 
Gomer, Joseph, 441, 442, 462, 465, 466. 
Gomer, Mrs. J., 441, 442. 
Great meetings, 134. 
Griffith, William R., 492. 
Groenendyke, Ellen, 467. 
Grosch, Christopher, 135, 145, 162, 171, 

181, 182, 218. 
Growth in membership, 642. 
Guething, George Adam, 116, 135, 145, 
162, 171, etc., 201, 406. 
and the Reformed Church, 119 ff. 
Guitner, John E., 494, 493. 

Hadley, Oliver, 440. 

Hadley, Mrs. O., 440. 

Hagerstown Conference, see Virginia 
Conference. 

Halverson, Lovina, 473, 474. 

Ham, W. J., 514. 

Hammond, Lucian H., 509. 

Hanby, Benjamin R., 296. 

Hanby, William, 295, 260, 261, 264, 266, 
272, 281, 282, 284, 408, 413, 486, 561, 562, 
637, 638, 650, 653, 654. 

Hanson, S. C, 519. 

Harbaugh, H., 45, 120, 121, 123. 

quoted, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 84, 101, 120. 
cited, 54, 89, 90, 124. 

Harrisburg Conference, see Pennsyl- 
vania Conference. 

Hartsville College, 484. 

Hatfield, Marietta, 468. 

Haywood, John, 493, 214. 

Haywood, Mrs. Sylvia, 461, 475. 

Hendel, William, 123, 126, 128 ff. 

Henkle, Mrs. Mary E., 472. 

Herborn, the school at, 26. 

Hetzler, P. C, 357, 361, 377, 599. 



Hiestand, Samuel, 257, 251, 255, 260, 261, 

264, 561, 562, 637, 650. 
Hildt, John, 30, 206, 207, 251. 
Hill, John, 456, 356, 361, 377, 597, 639. 
Hippard, Samuel M., 351, 3.54, 494, 529, 

5.57. 
Hiskey, George, 260, 264, 267. 
Historical outline, 641. 
Historical Society, 551, 386, 640. 
History of the United Brethren 
Church, Spayth's, 282, 653. 

Lawrence's, 420, 653. 
Hoenshel, E. U., 518. 
Hofl"man, Elizabeth, 460. 
Hoffman, Joseph, 256, 178, 179, 182, 184, 

194, 245, 246, 251, 557, 561, 637, 650. 
Hoke, Jacob, 570, 654. 
Holland, Church of, 32 ff. 

synods of, 36, 37. 
Home, Frontier, and Foreign Mission- 
ary Society, 424, 303. 

its work, 424. 

home and frontier field, 424. 

mission in Africa, 434. 

training school, 445. 

home of rest, 446. 

mission in Germany, 447. 

mission in Japan, 447. 

change in organization, 450. 

summary, 450. 

general officers, 451, 639. 
Home of rest, 416, 468. 
Home Reading Circle, 539. 
Hott, George P., 518, 567. 
Hott, James W., 387, 351, 354, 356, 361, 
377, 380, 413, 453, 567, 637, 638, 639, 650, 
654. 
Howard, A. T., 446. 
Huber, J. G., 514. 
Hymn-books, 406, 417, 654. 

Illinois Conference, 588, 282, 484. 
Indiana Conference, 563, 2;34, 282, 483. 
Iowa Conference, 585, 282, 495. 
Irie, George K., 448, 6-32. 
Isaac Long's barn, 79. 

Japan, mission in, 447, 632. 
John, L. F., 515. 
Jugend Pilger, 415. 

Kansas Conference, 601, 433, 434. 
Keister, George, 527, 528, 576. 
Keister, Mrs. L. R., 417, 461, 474, 475, 547, 
639, 640, 652. 



\ 



INDEX 



679 



Kemp, John, 453, 460, 525, 529, 557, 639. 
Kemp, Peter, 160, 169, 170, 171, 175, 181, 182. 
Kenoyer, J., 429, 598, 612. 
Kentucky Conference, 595, 434. 
Kephart, Cyrus J., 346, 509, 572. 
Kephart, Ezekiel B., 345, 356, 361, 372, 375, 

377, 382, 387, 393, 496, 499, 524,550, 551, 

576, 586, 637, 650, 651. 
Kephart, Isaiah L., 421, 357, 361, 377, 413, 

502, 513, 569, 576, 638. 
King, Jacob B., 418, 538, 640. 
King, J. R., 445, 447. 
Klinefelter, W. H., 502, 513, 557, 583. 
Kumler, D. C, 436, 437. 
Kumler, F. A. Z., 511, 512. 
Kumler, Henry, Jun., 275, 267, 273, 280, 

310, 326, 418, 428, 431, 480, 488, 489,557, 

637, 638, 650. 
Kumler, Henry, Sen., 236, 183, 194, 222, 

234, 245, 246, 251 flf., 267, 280, 480, 557, 

637, 650. 
Kumler, Samuel E., 277, 492, 494. 
Kurtz, J. D., 208, 209. 
quoted, 109. 

IiANCASTER, Otterbein at, 43. 

Landis, Josiah P., 525, 526, 528, 271, 543, 

544, 545, 548, 557, 638, 652, 657. 
Lane University, 503. 
Lanthurn, William H., 418, 654. 
Lawrence, John, 420, 413, 638, 653. 

History, quoted, 54, 57, 99, 107, 235, 
238, 239, etc. 
Lay representation, 305, 326, 386, 399. 
Lebanon Valley College, 506. 
Lehman, Adam, 127, 135, 145. 
Lesher, J. M., 442. 
Lesher, Mrs. J. M., 442. 
Lessons for the Little Oties, 413, 414. 
Light, Ezekiel, 422, 414, 524, 572, 639. 
Ling, Moy, 471, 472, 473. 
Litigation, a period of, 391. 

decisions of courts, 394 ff. 

decisions in the Publishing House 
case, 394, 665. 
Lorenz, Edmund S., 418, 509, 544, 557, 654. 
Lorenz, Edward, 422, 414, 592, 639. 
Lower Wabash Conference, 583. 
Lutherans, 34, 35, 80. 
Luttrell, J. L., 593, 594, 652. 

McFadden, Louis H., 493. 
McFadden, Thomas, 493. 
McGrew, L. A., 447, 468. 
McGrew, Mrs. Clara, 468. 



McKee, William, 453, 393, 417, 418, 452, 
550, 557, 638, 639, 652, 653. 

McNamar, John, 563. 

Mair, Mrs. M. M., 464. 

Markwood, Jacob, 316, 280, 283, 284, 310, 
480, 566, 637, 638, 650. 

Maryland Conference, 628. 

Mathers, William, 578, 652. 

Mathews, George M., 377, 378, 393, 416, 
423, 557, 638. 

Maumee Conference, see Auglaize Con- 
ference. 

Mayer, Abraham, 241, 169, 174, 175, 178, 
etc. 

Mayer, Lewis, quoted, 98. 

Membership, growth in, 642. 

Mennonites, 34, 63, 64, 72, 80, 140. 

Methodist Episcopal Church, friendly 
correspondence with, 179, 182, 187. 
fraternal relations with, 214, 216. 

Miami Conference, 180, 184, 556, 460, 485, 
488. 

Michigan Conference, 610, 484. 

Miller, Daniel R., 529, 377, 387, 549, 550, 
580, 640. 

Miller, George, 609, 351, 354, 356, 361, 377, 
423, 548. 

Miller, Jacob, 467. 

Miller, Mrs. Jacob, 467. 

Miller, Mrs. L. K., 417, 474, 475, 639, 652. 

Mills, J. S., 400, 356, 361, 377, 496, 500, 562, 
586, 637, 650. 

Mills, S., 502, 584. 

Mills, W. O., 516. 

Minnesota Conference, 603, 434. 

Missionary society, general, first or- 
ganized, 273. 
second organization, 303. 
woman's, 459. 

Missionary Visitor, 413. 

Missions, see Home, Frontier, and 
Foreign Missionary Society and 
Woman's Missionary Associa- 
tion. 

Missouri Conference, 604, 433, 434. 

Mittendorf, William, 422, 414, 592, 639, 
653. 

Mobley, D. A., 513. 

Mount Pleasant College, 483. 

Mountain Messenger, 406. 

Muhlenberg, Henry M., 37, 42. 

Mumma, M. J., cited, 79, 81. 

Muskingum Conference, 559, 245. 

Name of the Church adopted, 163. 



680 



INDEX 



Neidig, John, 157, 145, 162, 169, 170, 181. 
Neosho Conference, 616. 
Nevin, J. W., quoted, 109. 
Newcomer, Christian, 146, 232, 135, 145, 
162, 170, 171, 174, 175, etc., 637, 650, 654. 
"Journal," 232. 

quoted, 170, 174, 175, 176, 194, 204, 
205, etc. 
Nickey, G. G., 433. 
North Michigan Conference, 621. 
North Ohio Conference, 590. 
Northwest Kansas Conference, 624. 

OCKEESDOEF, Ottcrbein at, 28. 

Ohio German Conference, 591. 

Okamoto, M., 448. 

Old Conference, see Original Conference. 

Ontario Conference, 599, 431. 

Ordination, of Otterbein, 28, 30, 31. 

of Newcomer, Hoffman, and Schaf- 
fer, 205 ff. 

of bishops, 650. 
Oregon Conference, 598, 429, 430, 434. 
Original Conference, 132, 160, 169, 555. 
Osage Conference, see Arkansas Val- 
ley Conference. 
Otterbein, John Daniel, 23 ff. 
Otterbein, Philip William, 18, 20 ff. 

parentage, birth, and early years, 20. 

the Otterbein family, 22. 

the school at Herborn, 26. 

work in Herborn and Ockersdorf, 
28. 

certificate of ordination, 31. 

call to America, 31. 

pastor at Lancaster, 43. 

religious experience at Lancaster, 
48 ff. 

pastor at Tulpehocken, Frederick 
City, and York, 51. 

marriage, 59. 

visit to Germany, 61. 

meeting with Boehm, 78. 

called to Baltimore, 82. 

his church in Baltimore, 88. 

his rules, 89. 

and the United Ministers, 126 ff. 

leader of a new movement, 101 ff., 
132 ff. 

attendance at conference, 135, 145, 
161, 162, 169, 171, 174, 175. 

elected bishop, 166, 167, 168, 175, 176, 
637. 

last days and death, 203. 

literary remains, 214. 



Otterbein, Wilhelmina Henrietta, 23 ff. 
Otterbein Church, 88. 

rules of, 89. 
Otterbein family, the, 22. 
Otterbein University, 485. 
Our Bible-Lesson Quarterly, 413, 414. 
Our Bible Teacher, 413. 
Our Intermediate Bible-Lesson QuAxrferly, 

413. 
Owen, Alexander, 414, 416, 493, 569, 638. 

Paekersburg Conference, 600, 434. 
Patterson, Australia, 472, 473. 
Pennsylvania Conference, 567, 254. 
Periodicals, 406, 412. 
Pf rimmer, John Jacob, 156, 145, 162, 171, 

172, 176, 5a5. 
Philomath College, 509. 
Pietism, 65, 124. 
Pitman, J. S., 607. 
Preliminary, 17. 
!Pro rata representation, 324. 
Property, value of, 649. 
Pruner, W. J., 529, 557. 
Publication, before 1834, 405. 

after 1834, 255, 407. 
Publishing agents, 418, 638. 
Publishing House, 405, 255, 260, 304, 324. 

founded, 255, 407. 

removal to Dayton, 304, 408. 

material development, 409. 

periodical publications, 412. 

book publications, 417. 

publishing agents, 418. 

some of the editors, 420. 

board of trustees, 423. 

litigation, 391. 

Quarterly Review, 386, 416, 638. 

Rait, John Eberhardt, 26, 27, 39. 
Reese, W. S., 515, 517. 
Reformed Church, 32 ff., 80, 81. 
Beligious Telescope, 256, 407, 412, 688. 
Resler, J. B., 308, 494, 575. 
Revision movement, the, 349. 

opposition to, 369. 

protests against, 385. 
Rhinehart, William R., 254, 256, 260, 

261, 265, 406, 407, 557, 638, 654. 
Richardson, W. L., 614. 
Rike, David L., 558, 356, 361, 369, 377, 392, 

423, 492, 665. 
Rike, Mrs. D. L., 277, 324, 461, 640. 
Rock River Conference, 594, 484. 



INDEX 



681 



Russel, John, 291, 254, 256, 260, 267, 280, 
281, 282, 310, 407, 414, 480, 561, 637, 638, 
639, 650. 

Ryland, William, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210. 

Sabbath-School Association, 537 ff., 
640. 

Sabbath-School Board, see Sunday- 
School Board. 

Sage, W. S., 442. 467. 

Sage, Mrs. W. S., 442, 467. 

Saginaw Conference, see North Michi- 
gan Conference. 

San Joaquin Valley College, 513. 

Sanders, T. J., 494, 493, 623. 

Sandusky Conference, 577, 255, 303, 427. 

Schaff, Philip, " Didache," quoted, 141. 

Schaffer, Frederick, 135, 145, 162, 169, 
174, 175, 182, 183, 209, 650. 

Schenck, Ella, 468. 

Schlatter, Michael, 36 ff., 44. 

Schramm, John Henry, 26, 30, 31, 125. 

Schwope, Benedict, 83 ff., 97, 124, 126 ff., 
135, 145. 

Scioto Conference, 560, 253, 482, 485. 

Search Light, 417, 450, 639. 

Secession, radical, 382. 

Secret societies, 283, 308, 330, 355. 

Seneff, B. L., 502, 503. 

Sexton, Mrs. Lydia, 582. 

Shaffner, Lillie R., 472, 473. 

Shauck, John A., 356, 361, 369, 377, 393, 
394, 550, 665. 

Shenandoah Institute, 518. 

Sherbro Conference, 632. 

Shuck, Daniel, 320, 310, 377, 379, 385, 428, 
504, 524, 563, 607, 650. 

Shuck, David, 504. 

Shuey, William J., 410, 418, 419, 351, 356, 
861, 369, 375, 377, 387, 392, 393, 395, 398, 
435 ff., 524, 525, 538, 550, 557, 638, 640, 
651 ff., 671. 

Shuey, William R., 502, 503, 584. 

Shupe, H. F., 415, 544, 545, 547, 548, 576, 639. 

Sickafoose, George, 471, 472, 473, 588, 598. 

Sickafoose, Mrs. Ellen, 471, 472. 

Sinaitic Manuscript, copy of, de- 
stroyed, 491. 

Slavery, 247, 309. 

Smith, E. R., 423, 501. 

Smith, W. C, 502, 524, 583. 

Snepp, H. A., 357, 361, 377. 

Snyder, J. H., 351, 357, 361, 377. 

Snyder, Samuel S., 432, 576, 602. 

JSonntagschul-Lectionen, 415. 



Southern Missouri Conference, 625, 434. 
Southwest Kansas Conference, 629. 
Southwest Missouri Conference, see 

Southern Missouri Conference. 
Sowers, Thomas N., 418, 428, 638. 
Sowers, Mrs. Mary A., 461, 467, 475. 
Spangler, John, 144. 
Spayth, Henry G., 242, 222, 245, 251, 254, 
267, 282, 417, 578, 627, 653, 654. 

History, quoted, 30, 41, 53, 70, 71, 103, 
104, 121, 142, 153, 155, etc. 
cited, 122. 
Spener, Philip Jacob, 65, 125. 
St. Joseph Conference, 587, 282. 
Statistics, early, 221. 

of 1845, 280. 

of 1890, by States, 649. 

of 1896, 644, 645. 

of 1813-1896, 646, 647, 648. 

summary of property, 649. 
Statton, I. K., 351, 357, 361, 377, 586. 
Stevens, Abel, quoted, 213. 
Stevens, J. O., 515. 
Stewart, James T., 406. 
Sunday-School Board, 537 fl'., 323. 

organization, 537. 

officers, 538, 539, 640. 
Sunday-school literature, 413, 414, 415, 

540, 638. 
Sunday-school work, 533. 

outline of, 650. 

Bible Normal Union, 538, 650. 

Home Department, 539. 

Home Reading Circle, 539. 

Temperance, legislation on, 248, 255, 272. 
Tennessee Conference, 613. 
Terrell, Josiah, 431, 432, 602. 
Thompson, Henry A., 494, 389, 414, 423, 
493, 576, 638, 653. 
quoted, 297,311, 312. 
Time limit in pastorate removed, 400. 
Tobey, William O., 420, 413, 502, 638. 
Troyer, Daniel, 237, 181, 185, 222. 
Tulpehocken, Otterbein at, 51. 
Tyler, B. B., quoted, 110. 

Union Biblical, Seminary, 523, 323, 
640. 

the founding, 523. 

graduates, 526. 

admission of women, 527. 

faculty, 527. 

building and finances, 529. 
Union College, 515. 



682 



INDEX 



United Brethren Publishing House, 

see Publishing House. 
United Ministers, 126 ff. 
Unity Magazine, 416, 638. 

quoted, 62. 

cited, 236. 
Upper "Wabash Conference, 580. 

Vandemark, E., 267. 
Vickroy, Thomas R., 509. 
Virginia Conference, 564, 254. 
Vonnieda, Solomon, 409, 414, 418, 422, 
538, 571, 638, 639, 640. 

Wabash Conference, 279, 580, 582, 583. 

Wagner, Daniel, 124, 128 ff. 

Walla Walla Conference, see Columbia 
River Conference. 

Warner, Z., 451, 452, 600, 601, 639. 

Watchword, 415, 547, 639. 

Weaver, Jonathan, 333, 356, 360, 361, 369, 
372, 375, 377, 382, 387, 393, 398,400, 494, 
526, 550, 560, 637, 650, 651, 653, 654. 

Weaver, Solomon, 495, 496, 504, 524, 586. 

Weekley, William M., 458, 595, 601, 602, 
639. 

Weller, J. A., 504. 

Wesley, Charles, 17. 

Wesley, John, 17, 125. 

West, Richard N., 46-5, 466, 468. 

West, Mrs. R. N., 465, 466. 

West Kansas Conference, see North- 
west Kansas Conference. 

West Nebraska Conference, 620. 

Western College, 495. 

Western Reserve Conference, see East 
Ohio Conference. 

Westfield College, 501. 

White, R. J., 520, 521, 423, 597. 

White River Conference, 589. 

Whitefield, George, 18. 



Wilberforce, D. F., 446. 
Williams, Frances, 467, 468. 
Williams, J. A., 439, 441. 
Wilmore, A. C, 423, 590. 
Wilson, C. O., 440. 
Winters, Thomas, 162, 169, 185, 406. 
Wisconsin Conference, 605, 434. 
Witt, Mrs. B. F., 475, 640, 652. 
Witt, William Barton, 438. 
Woman's Evangel, 417, 474, 639. 
Woman's Missionary Association, 459, 
324. 

organization, 459. 

mission in Africa, 462. 

mission in Germany, 469. 

Chinese mission in Portland, 470. 

mission in China, 472. 

American mission in Portland, 475. 

Woman''s Evangel, 417, 474, 639. 

executive officers, 475, 640. 

summary, 475. 
Women, in annual conferences, 400. 

in General Conference, 399, 400. 

admission to ministry, 386. 
Wright, Milton, 343, 356, 360, 361, 372,375, 
383, 384, 413, 524, 525, 590, 637, 638, 



Yeakel, R., quoted, 193, 194. 

Yonayama, U., 448. 

York, Otterbein at, 60. 

York College, 516. 

Young People's Christian Union, 541. 

organization, 541. 

officers, 545, 547, 548, 640. 

progress and work, 546. 

ZELiiER, Andrew, 234, 185, 186, 222, 224, 

245, 246, 251, 557, 637, 650. 
Ziion's Advocate, 406. 
Zuck, William J., 518, 493, 576. 






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